U42 Preview 3: 4/30-5/02

[Cocomajobo]

(EDIT 4: The preview build has been approved. We will be opening Lamannia for preview 3 tomorrow, Friday 5/03, in the early afternoon. It will run through sometime relatively early on Monday 5/06. There is not a dev event planned for this preview at this time.

As per usual, I will post release notes when the preview opens and not before.)

(EDIT 3: Getting you all up to speed: Preview candidate build #2 has also failed approval. (Nailing down preview builds is always a pain). This time due to the crafting stations falling out of data and not being accessible in the least. On the bright side, most things are genuinely shaping up into a more polished state every day we end up pushing. =P

At this point we've pushed into the territory where we're planning on doing a weekend preview. Our current plan, now that it's already Wednesday is to take it slow today and get everything in order to pull a new build overnight, verify it tomorrow, and aim for a Friday 5/2 - Monday 5/5 preview schedule.

I'll let you know if this plan changes!)


(EDIT 2: We have yet to be able to kick off a new build which means that we are almost certainly not opening tonight. Still hopeful for a Wednesday 5/01 preview start. Will get you an update by tomorrow morning as to whether that is still viable (possibly in the wee hours of the morning after I have had a chance to look at a build theoretically kicked off in the next few hours if that happens).

As per usual, I will post release notes when the preview opens and not before.

(EDIT: Hey, all!

Popping in to keep everyone updated. The preview candidate build that we hoped to open on Lamannia later today has failed approvals and, as such, the preview has been delayed. At this time I do not have an eta as I need to wait till the rest of the dev team gets back in the office in the morning to fix the issues present in the current build (a highly variable amount of time), then kick off a new build (which takes roughly 6 hours), and then for QA to go through the approval process again (takes between 2 and 4 hours).

It is possible, though not super likely, that we could still open in the evening of 4/30. It wouldn't be the first time we'd pumped out that sort of turnaround time on a build for preview/release, however, I think it's a safer bet that we'd have a preview ready to open on 5/01. Nothing set in stone at this moment. I'll attempt to keep you posted as things develop.)

With the recent delay of the live server release of Update 42 (which you can read about here) we have gained time for one final Lamannia preview. This third, and final, preview is expected to be open on Lamannia from sometime in the afternoon of Tuesday April 30th until sometime in the evening of Thursday May 2nd. There is planned to be a Dev event on Wednesday May 1st from 8-10PM eastern where members of the DDO team will be available on lamannia to answer questions, collect feedback, and run content with players. Preview 3 is expected to showcase all of Update 42 features in various states of polish including:

• Sharn Public Areas
• Cogs Explorer Area
• 9 Sharn Story Dungeons
• 8 Cogs Explorer Dungeons (Yup! We managed our stretch goal and now fully expect an additional explorer dungeon than we were willing to commit to at the time of pre-purchase announcement.)
• 1 Masterminds of Sharn Raid (The only one releasing at the same time as Update 42)
• Named Loot
• Minor Artifacts
• Filigree
• Miscellaneous smaller changes and fixes

We are very excited to have the chance for a final look through of all of Update 42 by our players. We would love feedback from every player that has the time to come check it out! We expect to have a much more polished and finished feeling experience in the third preview than the second and hope you all can help us put those final touches on this new expansion. <3

[Arkat]

[Aelonwy]

Looking forward to it.

[vms4ever]

Thank you for the advance notice.

Will the lammania patch server be open beforehand to allow patching of the lammania client so that those who have needed to reinstall can get caught up on patches before the preview starts? (This would greatly reduced my frustration with the preview.)

[SerPounce]

What's going on with the new/updated "nearly finished" crafting system? You announced there will be one, but unless I missed it we haven't seen any details.

[Yamani]

[*]8 Cogs Explorer Dungeons (Yup! We managed our stretch goal and now fully expect an additional explorer dungeon than we were willing to commit to at the time of pre-purchase announcement.)

More content then originally planned is always a win!

[Alcides]

Better to be right than buggy, thanks for the heads up.

[banjo174]

Are the second tiefling dances coming with this expansion?! Please! I must know! I want to see that booty jiggle!

[Arkat]

What's going on with the new/updated "nearly finished" crafting system? You announced there will be one, but unless I missed it we haven't seen any details.

It was working on the last Lamannia build.

It is very similar to Vaults of the Artificers crafting (not Cannith Crafting).

[Loromir]

8 Cogs Explorer Dungeons (Yup! We managed our stretch goal and now fully expect an additional explorer dungeon than we were willing to commit to at the time of pre-purchase announcement.)
<3

Does this mean there could be additional explorer dungeons added to cogs at future dates?

[Cocomajobo]

Does this mean there could be additional explorer dungeons added to cogs at future dates?

Nope. The Cogs explorer area is a Masterminds of Sharn feature and, as such, adding new dungeons to it in the future would require anyone who wanted to access those to have purchased the adventure pack. Similar reason to why we've never added more dungeons to the Underdark explorer area.

That being said, this does not mean we can't add more dungeons that take place in the cogs, more public areas in the cogs, more cogs wilderness areas, etc. It's just that any future cogs related content will either be part of the Masterminds of Sharn pack (not likely) or not physically located in the Cogs wilderness area that is being released with U42.

[Aelonwy]

Nope. The Cogs explorer area is a Masterminds of Sharn feature and, as such, adding new dungeons to it in the future would require anyone who wanted to access those to have purchased the adventure pack. Similar reason to why we've never added more dungeons to the Underdark explorer area.

That being said, this does not mean we can't add more dungeons that take place in the cogs, more public areas in the cogs, more cogs wilderness areas, etc. It's just that any future cogs related content will either be part of the Masterminds of Sharn pack (not likely) or not physically located in the Cogs wilderness area that is being released with U42.

You guys really need to think of an outside-the-box way to make this possible in the future. This has been requested for years; for you to populate older wilderness zones with MORE quests, especially under-used zones like the Underdark.

The best idea of which I've heard is to have the new quest givers give the option of just taking the quest, or taking the quest and being teleported inside then upon completeing the quest and finishing-out the game would check to see if you owned the wilderness zone if so teleport you to the quest entrance in the zone and if not teleport you to a pre-determined zone outside the wilderness zone entrance.

That way people that own the original content can take all the quests located in the wilderness zone and do them as they come to them exploring the zone and people that only own the 2nd set of quests without access to the zone can be teleported directly inside the quests they own and come out where people are teleported when they exit the wilderness zone. It might even encourage them to purchase the older adventure pack that includes the wilderness zone without forcing them to do so.

[Mindos]

Nope. The Cogs explorer area is a Masterminds of Sharn feature and, as such, adding new dungeons to it in the future would require anyone who wanted to access those to have purchased the adventure pack. Similar reason to why we've never added more dungeons to the Underdark explorer area.

That being said, this does not mean we can't add more dungeons that take place in the cogs, more public areas in the cogs, more cogs wilderness areas, etc. It's just that any future cogs related content will either be part of the Masterminds of Sharn pack (not likely) or not physically located in the Cogs wilderness area that is being released with U42.

Come on! It's not like sales are booming for the old content anyway. Just make the area free to play and sell the new dungeons. Or just make/sell the new dungeons for a low price and include the area. It's doesn't make any difference- They haven't owned it for all this time, meaning they haven't given you any money for all this time, so any sale from this point forward is just gravy.

You make it sound like people would be forced to pay big bucks to buy an older pack, then pay money again to play the new dungeons. That's a little disingenious, since you (SSG) control the pricing and the format. You can make any package you want, and charge whatever you want. I don't think too many people would be upset if a pack from 10 years ago went Free To Play. Your customers are telling you what they want, and you're telling them it would be dishonorable to take their money (and make them happy).

[DarkSkysz]

Ataraxia is f2p and about a decade old. If they can't be bothered putting new quests in that wilderness area they're not going to put quests in areas where p2p is a pre-requisite. I love this game and in the 8 years I've been playing I've come to understand what the devs can and can't be bothered to do. I just play the game and enjoy what we get given. Its less painful on the soul than hoping for miracles lol.


Though I am an atheist.

Same thing about Searing Heights. Huge explorer area with potential for awesome quests. But sadly its used only for Bargain of Blood.

[Aelonwy]

Ataraxia is f2p and about a decade old. If they can't be bothered putting new quests in that wilderness area they're not going to put quests in areas where p2p is a pre-requisite. I love this game and in the 8 years I've been playing I've come to understand what the devs can and can't be bothered to do. I just play the game and enjoy what we get given. Its less painful on the soul than hoping for miracles lol.


Though I am an atheist.

We were told for ages that visible cloaks weren't going to happen. Things change. I neither have hope nor lack of hope, it is simply my opinion that this would be a good step toward filling out the stories and locales of the game-world in which we play. Also I know next to nothing about programming but various ideas posted by people who do sound not impossible to me. The game already checks if you own particular content before it lets you in the quest so presumably it can check if you own the wilderness zone before letting you recall into it. Don't own it? Okay, when you recall, you do so entirely outside the zone. I think it might increase sales of older packs that people don't bother with much anymore. They could even sell the brand new adventure pack and offer a discount on the old one simultaneously. I would suggest a bundle but somehow they have trouble with that since the DDO store got upgraded(?).

[Cantor]

I wonder if something is just coded different for quests entered from wilderness. (though I can't imagine why one would do that other than "I can save .001% computing time by not checking if they have the pack on entering since they are already in the wilderness")

The guy who did all the testing about blitz dropping on zoning in quests came to the conclusion it was in quests entered from a wilderness, so I wonder if they really are different as crazy as that would be.

[Cordovan]

The next person who veers an official thread off-topic to discuss politics or religion gets banned from the forums. This is your only warning. Thread cleaned up.

[Arkat]

The next person who veers an official thread off-topic to discuss politics or religion gets banned from the forums. This is your only warning. Thread cleaned up.

I missed it?!?!?

[lyrecono]

Deleted

[DRoark]

We'd be alot happier with crafting if they just made ONE crafting system, instead of 7. Plus, I also noticed made upgrading the weapons actually remove the mythic bonuses.
Crafting used to be OK, but after 12+ years of multiple systems, it's just too much junk. Adding Threads didn't help at all either, considering the insane prices of upgrades,
and having to buy back stripped off bonuses.

You got rid of multiple essences with Cannith, where'd all that inspiration go?