U42 Preview 2: Sharn Story Quests

[Cocomajobo]

Disclaimer

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release.

Masterminds of Sharn is expected to feature 9 Story Dungeons, 7 Explorer Dungeons, 1 Explorer Area, and 2 Raids. This second preview contains all 9 of those Story Dungeons, 6 of those Explorer Dungeons, the Explorer area, and 1 of those Raids (The only one expected to go live with Update 42). Players can gain access to these quests by speaking to "Lord Poincelot" in the center of the test dojo and then purchasing the "Masterminds of Sharn" adventure pack in the DDO Store.

The Sharn Story Dungeons
The questgiver for the Story Dungeons can be found in the Clifftop Tower District of Sharn. You can reach Sharn either through a transport NPC in the Harbor or a transport NPC in the center island of the Test Dojo.

• A Sharn Welcome (Levels 15/32)

• Red Rain (Levels 15/32)

• Best Laid Plans (Levels 15/32)

• The Same Old Song (Levels 15/32)

• Just Business (Levels 15/32)

• No Refunds (Levels 16/32)

• House of Pain (Levels 16/32)

• Blown Deadline (Levels 16/32)

• Reach for the Sky (Levels 16/32)

Quest Known Issues

• Experience has not been set, and will change.
• Dungeon decoration, character appearances, and lighting in the dungeons are not complete.
• Text should be complete, but may contain typos.
• Most of the questgivers have placeholder text.
• The skycoach and elevator for the story dungeons do not refer to all destinations correctly (so you may see references to, say, "sharn1_c" instead of a destination name.)
• Text in dungeons should be complete, but may contain typos.
• The saga for the main story quests is available but does not have text. There will be a saga for the explorer quests as well (but it is not accessable, as not all the explorer dungeons are available.)
• Some goblins do not fight correctly (for example, goblin trappers do not yet place traps.)
• In “The Same Old Song”, the singer’s song lines and audio lines are placeholder.
• In “Reach for the Sky", thee buildings in the initial outside section are excessively dark on most monitors.
• Most voiceover work is not yet in.

[Yamani]

Wash and Dry aren't very aggresive beyond just following in A Sharn Welcome. They might want to defend themselves with attacks? :P

[Sho-sa]

Not overly fond of the level spread of the Quests. The 15s are good, but we plenty of level 16s in game already, and could use a few more at level 14. Ravenloft was pretty much evenly spread over three level ranges. Would like Sharn not to be so heavily focused on just two levels.

[HastyPudding]

Oops, wrong thread.

[Strimtom]

I only had 1 chance to do a sharn welcome, which I recorded here.

• I love the atmosphere and the moving parts.
• The decorations look great.
• The monsters busting in through the windows was super cool and I really enjoyed the travelling spider monsters that explode.
• Wash and Dry don't do anything unless you are in melee combat with them. Might need to fix that.
• Too many enemies are just standing in rooms when they could be busting through the windows or looting or something.
• I missed a hidden lever which caused me to take 6 minutes back tracking. Unsure of what to think or do about that.

[Yamani]

Reach for the Sky the shrine in the bathroom is completely in the wrong spot! It should be moved into the stall's and made into the toilet paper roll. (just like partycrashers!)

[niknight]

Wash and Dry aren't very aggresive beyond just following in A Sharn Welcome. They might want to defend themselves with attacks? :P

Seconded. Dry just followed me around over the entirety of the quest without attacking me at all.

[tarrith_dourden]

Just to add something...

Can we NOT have the Wayfinders port names and the quest name being different like we have in Ravenloft? I have a friend that it confuses the hell out of every time we go through the Ravenloft chain.
Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?

[DYWYPI]

Following on from my last critique on: Masterminds of Sharn (Preview 1) [Post #59], we now move onwards to: Preview 2. I only had the time to preview three more of the Sharn Story Dungeons; I would hope there is a third Preview.

Note: again, you had the yellow Dungeon Master text disappearing too fast in some places - I'm not a slow reader. :-/

The flapping birds are drunk, drinking from my glass.

Sharn Story Dungeons

Best Laid Plans: we got to travel though a back alley, and sneak into a warehouse. That was a nice change from the monotonous 'straight lines theme' running through most Sharn upper dungeons. At last we had a believable storage area. The Developers' probably got a little too carried away with the "break crates" jokes though... ;-)

The rune symbols for the puzzle wheels were a little hard to see at certain angles due to the bars on the gates.

The basement area gave me 'Green Dungeon Alert' within seconds, and I was on a Stealthy Assassin. You might want to investigate that. It would have helped immensely if you had labelled the Office and Basement doors on the map since they could not be interacted with. :-(

Furthermore near the end; it mentioned something about Forgewraiths rising from the Cellar? I went down to locate them and nothing was there - the Bosses' Barrier was still up. I actually had to go around the main crate storage area into the centre of the room before they would spawn. So it became a bit of a slog and seemed illogical wraiths triggering there! So if you could label the doors or Office on the map or something it would be appreciated.


House of Pain: I think you made a good attempt with the atmosphere of the slums and it probably helped with it being night-time. The humour was light-hearted and I'm sure it will get better when you complete the dialogues. I suspect the "trapped sealed room" would be fun though of course my Rogue dealt with the traps before they had chance to trigger.

I don't think you needed to repeat the water slide as much as you did in that quest; less is more, twice would have been fine. As I was short of time I didn't bother with the puzzle. Again map markers might have helped since a lot of the quest was open-plan.


Blown Deadline: first off, good job with the 'Temple of Kol Karran' exterior and gardens - they were beautiful. I think the design of the area below the temple worked better with it being in the dark, it was more believable.

Now I'm a priest teenager on a tower of dust.

The mobs were fine and I liked the composition of the Partols and the supporting Riot Suppressor Cannons. I really don't know what Sea Lions were doing in the Waste disposal, but it was amusing nonetheless – just because of the silliness aspect.

Again, the area where the 'Enslaved Workers' were held looked a little too pristine. I know it was a storage area but there were far too many impossibly neat straight lines with the boxes.

The Sabotage the machinery was lacklustre; far too much backtracking and it really didn't feel as if I was demolishing the machines. It didn't have to be as impressive as 'Haywire Foundry'. However, I didn't get the "feeling" the machines were going to grind to a halt or completely malfunction...

I'm a dead generator, in a cloud of exhaust.

It was more like a few tiny leaks in a pipe that would probably take the bad guys less than a few hours to patch-up with a few plates and rivets. So that part was underwhelming. The idea was fine but poorly executed. The quest Blown to Bits, made much better job of immersion as regards to demolishing machinery, etc.


You've done a great job with the 'Cogs Explorer quests' though nearly all the main 'Sharn Story Dungeons' that I've experienced; are sadly still lacking in dungeon design quality in several places. :-)

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