Upcoming Change to Rose Colored Goggles

[Arkat]

My sentient weapon objects to be fed anything "rose colored," "rose flavored," or "rose scented." So it's probably just as well.

I guess it doesn't like the taste of rouges either, huh?



I'll be here all week, folks!

[CaptainPurge]

I guess it doesn't like the taste of rouges either, huh?



I'll be here all week, folks!

Wait, didn't you pay SSG to add new named kama's? In Lost At Sea?

[Niminae]

Which of course everyone reading this knows this is bogus math and logic. If you wanted sentient XP you could run the ravenloft chain on R1 in approx 2 hours and drop far more than one nightmother/morninglord/named item. These are also each at 290 xp per which will go a lot further in your calculation. I would estimate on a full run through RL i drop 2-4 named items and 2-4 of the base items so if we take those averages that will come out to 1740 xp / 2 hours which blows up your formula above.
To make your case even worse, if you wanted to just focus on sentient xp your could run 4-5 R1 WPM's in that 2 hour window which will drop you approx 1 item per run from all chests and most likely 1-3 sentient xp gems worth 1000k xp each. Taking this average I'm coming out to 3305 xp/ 2 hour window.
Now if you're talking about putting no effort into maximizing your weapon and doing it passively as you get your random loots then maybe your rate is correct...but then again why do you feel you must have the most maxed out item when you're not putting the full effort into getting it there?

The post you responded to was exaggerating the difficulty, but you went the other direction and are exaggerating the ease. Running 12 quests on R1 in 2 hours? For some players, maybe, but probably not the majority. Even when you are fairly familiar with it Amber Temple can be a slog, and you don't get the named chest if you just go for a quick completion. And while that last is just an opinion, your claim that running WPM "will drop you approx 1 item per run from all chests" is easily verified as false information, since the devs have posted that the odds for any named item drop on Elite is ~35%. If you meant one item per run if you hit each named chest you're closer (and actually a little low, but then "approx 1 item" is a fairly vague amount), but then you're adding running the optionals to an already fairly long quest.

Picking one of the quicker quests in the Ravenloft chain would be a better suggestion. You could run 2 of the quests 6 times each without fear of ransack, and that could be far more easily accomplished within a 2 hour period. But then you have to deal with the mind-numbing boredom of repeating the same quest over and over. Kind of like running Anniversary Party over and over for the Rose Colored Goggles, or frankly for any of the rewards offered in that event.


RE the OP: Sucks to be me, since I'm sitting on 50 Party Favors that I missed turning in last year. I was hoping for exchanging them for the sentient XP this year.

[Iriale]

Hello!

We wanted to give you a heads-up about a change to an item coming soon in a patch: The Rose Colored Goggles, found in the Anniversary event. This joke item has a Minimum Level of 30, and applies an effect that "reduces your level cap to 10" by giving you 20 negative levels while equipped. As a joke item, it's fairly cheap to acquire in the Anniversary Party, but its ML30 Named Item status means that it grants the same amount of Sentient XP as a standard level 30 item, which is too much given the effort required to obtain it.

With a patch sometime before this year's Anniversary Event, we'll be reducing the Sentient XP it grants to 10, matching the value of the level this item "reduces" you to.

We recognize that this is a pretty large change for that item, which is why we waited until this year's event to move forward with it, and why we're giving advanced notice now. If you have copies of this item that you're waiting to crunch for Sentient XP, now would be the time to do so.

We've got some other new goodies for the Anniversary coming down the line soon, looking forward to sharing them with you!

Since you make this fix, what if you also fix the btc cosmetics that you gave last year? No cosmetics should be btc. Turn them into bta

[Arkat]

Wait, didn't you pay SSG to add new named kama's? In Lost At Sea?

Nope. Besides my VIP subscription and the few things I have bought in the DDO Store, I haven't given SSG (or Turbine for that matter) a single penny.

[Eryhn]

Hello!

We wanted to give you a heads-up about a change to an item coming soon in a patch: The Rose Colored Goggles, found in the Anniversary event. This joke item has a Minimum Level of 30, and applies an effect that "reduces your level cap to 10" by giving you 20 negative levels while equipped. As a joke item, it's fairly cheap to acquire in the Anniversary Party, but its ML30 Named Item status means that it grants the same amount of Sentient XP as a standard level 30 item, which is too much given the effort required to obtain it.

With a patch sometime before this year's Anniversary Event, we'll be reducing the Sentient XP it grants to 10, matching the value of the level this item "reduces" you to.

We recognize that this is a pretty large change for that item, which is why we waited until this year's event to move forward with it, and why we're giving advanced notice now. If you have copies of this item that you're waiting to crunch for Sentient XP, now would be the time to do so.

We've got some other new goodies for the Anniversary coming down the line soon, looking forward to sharing them with you!

You could put 500 Sentient XP gems into the reward list that can be exchanged for a price you deem reasonable. That way the option to get some goodies in this regard is still in but you have it under control.

Speaking of goodies long wished for, festive augments of other types.

Speaking of the curve between vets and newbies, or the cringe returning players experience after a long time comeback (just seen it with a guildy, he nearly quit again after coming back realizing how much stuff had moved on) - given we are now at +8 store tomes and top raids dropping in far higher tiers, a SINGLE +5 tome per character per event like once existed for mabar would not seem overly punishing on your sales, would it?

[Xanthrawl]

Agreed! But the Sentient system was new (<1 month old) and the precaution for this sort of thing on the design end wasn't fully formed yet,so it slipped through. Rather than revoke it immediately, we decided to let it pass and fix it for the next Anniversary. So, here we are: Making a balance change, and giving advanced warning so people know this is being corrected and have time to use up any that are left.

Also, now that the Sentient System is ~1 YEAR old, can we talk about how a 1 handed weapon that ONCE was Sentient can still not be equipped in the off-hand.

Given the grind required to level up a Sentient Jewel, most casual gamers only have 1 and are forced to use the Sentient Toolkits to change them from weapon to weapon across various lives. A few lives ago, I added sentience to an Epic Envenomed Blade as a Single Weapon Fighter. A few TRs later, and I am a TWF Ranger. I go to make a weapon combo with the Epic Envenomed Blade as the off-hand weapon, and cannot do so because it was ONCE sentient.

This is such a PITA it's not even funny, and removes a big benefit of TWF: versatility. Now if I want to use this weapon, it MUST be the main hand. Which means I should think LONG and HARD before I PURCHASE more Sentient Toolkits from the DDO Store, unless I am on a THF life.

What precautions did you take to make sure THIS didn't happen?

Now that you know that it IS happening, what are you going to do about it?

Leaving the Rose Goggles alone would actually help a bit, as you could level up more than 1 gem in a reasonable amount of time. Of course, fixing the issue would be the best solution. Neither of these options makes you money (neither does leaving this bug in place, as I won't be buying any more until this is resolved.)

[glmfw1]

We wanted to give you a heads-up about a change to an item coming soon in a patch: The Rose Colored Goggles, found in the Anniversary event. This joke item has a Minimum Level of 30, and applies an effect that "reduces your level cap to 10" by giving you 20 negative levels while equipped. As a joke item, it's fairly cheap to acquire in the Anniversary Party, but its ML30 Named Item status means that it grants the same amount of Sentient XP as a standard level 30 item, which is too much given the effort required to obtain it.

Introduce a system that uses item ML to determine sXP granted, then create an easy-to-obtain ML30 item immediately afterwards - sounds like an easily avoidable situation if it wasn't WAI. The "joke" nature of the item had a lot of people thinking this was WAI, as an easy, if monotonous, method for non-power players to be able to advance their sentient weapons, allowing them to compete in the big leagues from time to time

I don't get it.

Last year, using the Rose Colored Glasses to level up Sentient Jewels was a-okay. Many people asked and it was confirmed as working as intended.

So a year goes by. Power players have long since maxed out weapons with the works. Many have multiple maxed out weapons. New and more casual players could use some help catching up, at least to the 60k mark, and you are slowing them down?

Of course, the power players drop in and say, "Thank you!", since they already got theirs.

Convince me this is not slamming the door on new and casual players after the rocket ships have already left the barn. How does this better serve the community as a whole?

Exactly. This change benefits noone.
If you want to make the changes, leave the item out of the rewards list or make the goggles actually ML10, with an incremental negative level effect (1 at level 11, 20 at level 30), so EVERYONE can be capped at level 10.
Otherwise, leave them as they are, so the non-powere players have a once-in-a-year chance to get their Sentients advanced.

This was never WAI, sorry. It's been on our hitlist ever since we realized it was happening.

You had 11 months to announce this was not WAI, and say "fix will be in place before next event". The right time for this announcement was when you realised it was happening. You could have told people "the item will be fixed after the event... enjoy it while it lasts". Instead, all the non-power players were thinking "maybe this year I might get all my slots opened" and now realise it's unlikely to happen.

[glmfw1]

Also, now that the Sentient System is ~1 YEAR old, can we talk about how a 1 handed weapon that ONCE was Sentient can still not be equipped in the off-hand.

Given the grind required to level up a Sentient Jewel, most casual gamers only have 1 and are forced to use the Sentient Toolkits to change them from weapon to weapon across various lives. A few lives ago, I added sentience to an Epic Envenomed Blade as a Single Weapon Fighter. A few TRs later, and I am a TWF Ranger. I go to make a weapon combo with the Epic Envenomed Blade as the off-hand weapon, and cannot do so because it was ONCE sentient.

This is such a PITA it's not even funny, and removes a big benefit of TWF: versatility. Now if I want to use this weapon, it MUST be the main hand. Which means I should think LONG and HARD before I PURCHASE more Sentient Toolkits from the DDO Store, unless I am on a THF life.

What precautions did you take to make sure THIS didn't happen?

Now that you know that it IS happening, what are you going to do about it?

Leaving the Rose Goggles alone would actually help a bit, as you could level up more than 1 gem in a reasonable amount of time. Of course, fixing the issue would be the best solution. Neither of these options makes you money (neither does leaving this bug in place, as I won't be buying any more until this is resolved.)

Personally I would rather they fix it so that sentient weapons could be equipped in the off hand, but the Sentient powers are only active when equipped in the main hand. As a big TWF fan, I have duplicate weapons, so I can have a sentient for when I want it as a main hand weapon and a non sentient for the rest of the time... a complete pain for inventory management (and there's rarely an occasion when I want to use 2 of the same). This change would improve QoL and solve your problem at the same time.

[Mindos]

Also, now that the Sentient System is ~1 YEAR old, can we talk about how a 1 handed weapon that ONCE was Sentient can still not be equipped in the off-hand.

A few lives ago, I added sentience to an Epic Envenomed Blade as a Single Weapon Fighter. A few TRs later, and I am a TWF Ranger. I go to make a weapon combo with the Epic Envenomed Blade as the off-hand weapon, and cannot do so because it was ONCE sentient.


What precautions did you take to make sure THIS didn't happen?


Now that you know that it IS happening, what are you going to do about it

I wasn't aware this was happening. You can never equip a weapon in the offhand slot if it ever had a sentient jewel slotted ever? Is it just having the jewel slotted or does it have to have had a filigree slotted at some point as well? Did you bug report this?

I agree with you, this is a big deal.

[Xanthrawl]

I wasn't aware this was happening. You can never equip a weapon in the offhand slot if it ever had a sentient jewel slotted ever?

That has been my experience, yes.

Is it just having the jewel slotted or does it have to have had a filigree slotted at some point as well? Did you bug report this?

I do not know the answer to this. My experience is limited to one item. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. (Especially when I have to spend TP on the Toolkits to remove the Filigree/Gem each time.) When I saw that I cannot equip a 1 Handed weapon in the offhand simply because it was Sentient previously, I didn't want to inflict this curse on my other weaponry. Feel free to try it out and share your results. For all I know, this issue may be specific to the Epic Envenomed Blade, but I really doubt it...

And no, I did not bug report it. I do not bug report anything anymore. The gears turn too slowly for me. I understand there won't be instant gratification on a bug report, but with no follow through, and the bug not being fixed in a timely fashion despite being easily verifiable/replicated. It's disheartening, and I feel it is a waste of time. I find you get better results posting on the forums than submitting a bug report.

If they REALLY wanted bug reports, there would be an incentive to do so. All of your data would auto-populate on the form. There would be some form of acknowledgement/follow up with the bug. And they would be resolved in a timely fashion. Turbine previously, and now SSG, are 0 for 4.

[Lynnabel]

That has been my experience, yes.

I just tested this out to be sure, and it didn't happen to me. I used a Suffering (from RL), a Blackrazor gem, and an unslotter to test. Would you mind letting us know what weapon you were using? Some weapons can't actually go into the offhand naturally, and it's possible the item you were looking that falls into that category.

[Strambotica]

About those new goodies...

there is a chance to see a Cosmetic Green Crown any time soon¿?

i really want one ^^

[Ulfo]

Would you mind letting us know what weapon you were using? Some weapons can't actually go into the offhand naturally, and it's possible the item you were looking that falls into that category.

For all I know, this issue may be specific to the Epic Envenomed Blade, but I really doubt it...

Reading not your bright side? 8)

And this blade clearly work as off-hand, so your excuse attemp was... not very good.

[Lynnabel]

Reading not your bright side? 8)

Hah, apparently not! Thanks for the sleuth work, your keen eyes saved me seconds, if not minutes, of research

I just tested it out, and it looks like the Epic Envenomed Blade still fits in the offhand, even after a gem is removed. I'll poke around a little to see if I find anything resembling a smoking gun, but if not this poorly worded noir metaphor has gone cold case.

[vryxnr]

Hah, apparently not! Thanks for the sleuth work, your keen eyes saved me seconds, if not minutes, of research

I just tested it out, and it looks like the Epic Envenomed Blade still fits in the offhand, even after a gem is removed. I'll poke around a little to see if I find anything resembling a smoking gun, but if not this poorly worded noir metaphor has gone cold case.

I have not experienced this, but (random speculation!) when you tested, did you slot the gem, feed it something so it gained some sxp, then removed it? Maybe give it a filigree too? Or did you just slot it then remove it right away?

(I guess the same question for Xanthrawl, narrow down all the specifics)

[Lynnabel]

I have not experienced this, but (random speculation!) when you tested, did you slot the gem, feed it something so it gained some sxp, then removed it? Maybe give it a filigree too? Or did you just slot it then remove it right away?

(I guess the same question for Xanthrawl, narrow down all the specifics)

Gem with 0 XP, Gem with XP, Gem with XP and Filigree (that I then had to remove first before removing the gem) - no dice.

This is part of why Bug Reports are so important to us, compared to forum posts - they're a great way for us to catalogue and organize information. In the future, if another designer picks this up to investigate, they'll have had the benefit of the information collected in that bug queue to help narrow down what could be broken. Information is key

[vms4ever]

I have not experienced this, but (random speculation!) when you tested, did you slot the gem, feed it something so it gained some sxp, then removed it? Maybe give it a filigree too? Or did you just slot it then remove it right away?

(I guess the same question for Xanthrawl, narrow down all the specifics)

Did you test after using the blade to deal the death thrust to the shadow dragon during a lag storm while evading and blocking?

[That was a joke, by the way.]

[vryxnr]

Did you test after using the blade to deal the death thrust to the shadow dragon during a lag storm while evading and blocking?

[That was a joke, by the way.]

Ha!

(though on the flip side, you'd be amazed at the steps and lengths some go through to achieve specific results)

[Xanthrawl]

I just tested it out, and it looks like the Epic Envenomed Blade still fits in the offhand, even after a gem is removed. I'll poke around a little to see if I find anything resembling a smoking gun, but if not this poorly worded noir metaphor has gone cold case.

Gem with 0 XP, Gem with XP, Gem with XP and Filigree (that I then had to remove first before removing the gem) - no dice.

This is part of why Bug Reports are so important to us, compared to forum posts - they're a great way for us to catalogue and organize information. In the future, if another designer picks this up to investigate, they'll have had the benefit of the information collected in that bug queue to help narrow down what could be broken. Information is key

Nothing to see here, I'm an idiot. Humble Pie has been consumed. Leaving the pics as my shame.

P.S. - Don't get rid of the Rose Glasses so I can finally use a spark on my gem.