Rant: "Spies in the House", lamest dungeon ever

[apocaladle]

it is a bit weird that the heroic electric floor seems to hit harder than epic.

[Whisper1]

Quest is great. Author looks like troll to me, no offence. Whats next? Complain that Jungle of Khyber (Von3) is too complex quest?

99% of players can do Spies in afk mode, since it is main daily quest on all servers.

[janave]

it is a bit weird that the heroic electric floor seems to hit harder than epic.

There are a couple of places in the game where the heroic quest stats were not upgraded. Traps and skill DC checks are sometimes missed.

[Dark_Helmet]

I was soloing this dungeon with 2 hirelings, being very cautious, since i had never been in it before.
…
Somehow my rogue didn't see this "gotcha" trap.

So here is my rant: it seems that dungeons like this give players 2 options (1) Discover all the 'gotchas' through death, wasting a lot of time. Lame. (2) Go through with a seasoned player who shows you every little thing to do. Also lame.

I prefer to explore and learn vs being spoon fed. My character (wizard) is 12th level, mostly soloing. So far the game has been pretty good, but this one left a bad taste in my mouth. Please tell me these lame dungeons are few.

One final note: this game is modeled after D&D, but I imagine a DM would lose players if he/she had these gotchas in the dungeons. Those make it more like a console game, not an RPG.

First time, so you were running on the easiest difficulty, correct?

You call it a "trap" where it is more of a puzzle (turning valves).

As a DM, I would also gently nudge the noob players in a different direction (aka CHOOSE THE CORRECT DIFFICULTY).


While I hate Spies, I appreciate that it gives such glee to some players and devious devs. I only run it when other people invite me to pike along (and laugh when I can't make the simple jumps).

Love your work!

[thedip]

Quest is great. Author looks like troll to me, no offence. Whats next? Complain that Jungle of Khyber (Von3) is too complex quest?

99% of players can do Spies in afk mode, since it is main daily quest on all servers.

I am one of those 1% as I have great difficulty with any jumping type quests and so I only ever do this quest if I am going for the 5000k favour reward or second TBC saga. I have never asked for the quest to be changed or dumbed down as i think that having a variety of quest styles is good for the game.

Just remember that some of us have difficulties with manual dexterity which makes completing the jumping style quests a real trial. Some people may be able to AFK the quest or do it blindfolded, it can take me several hours of complete frustration. With the appearance of Sharn, it is likely that I will never run this quest again. Making it easier for people like me would likely make it trivial for the majority.

[mons]

OP this is probably not that helpful to you but maybe it is to everyone else and that is use a Pale Lavender to run across the electric floor (Especially in Reaper)

OP, You can actually make it through the electric floors without even touching the floor, there is a "safe spot" immediately to the left when you first make the approach that runs to the overhead horizontal pipes at which point you can jump up to. You will have the fire elementals and air elemental to deal with but it does bypass the first electric floor. (I'd deal with the air elemental first for obvious reasons) Fire resist/protection/absorption helps as well as Cold and Shock. You need to have a very good jump for the next part. Where the second valve is on the small square platform, if you stand on the piping edge (higher than the platform) you can jump across the floor and grab the lip where the air jet sends you up to the next electric floor. (haste is a good idea as well along with heroism/greater heroism/rage etcetera) Once up to the second floor with the mephitis just follow the cement barrier around to the boxes and use them to jump up to the piping where the ladder is and also beware of the ice elementals perched above on the next level, takes time/patience and a lot of dying but you will perceiver. Hope that helped.

[Dalris_Thane]

I am one of those 1% as I have great difficulty with any jumping type quests and so I only ever do this quest if I am going for the 5000k favour reward or second TBC saga.

First off... I 100% agree with you.

I wouldn't bother replying, personally. Soon as someone says "99% of people can do this...", or some other paraphrase, I see it a combination of false modesty and "please stop complaining". You won't get them to agree.

[kmoustakas]

Spies in the house is one of my favourite quests. I love challenging quests like this. I'm looking forward to the day the pit becomes an epic quest so those in the know can daily xp farm it. So long as it doesn't get the tempest spine treatment, that is.

[boredGamer]

Ah, yet another thread about people like to play the game differently.

Popcorn on.

[HungarianRhapsody]

First off... I 100% agree with you.

I wouldn't bother replying, personally. Soon as someone says "99% of people can do this...", or some other paraphrase, I see it a combination of false modesty and "please stop complaining". You won't get them to agree.

That's one of the great things about DDO. If you don't like one quest, you have more than 400 others to pick from.

If you can't do that quest, that's okay. You can still step in and pike on the Epic dailies and use the time to make a sandwich or somet. On Heroic, there's 0 need to run the quest because there's a huge amount of XP at that level elsewhere.

Not everyone has to like every quest. No one here is saying that you have to run that quest. No one here is saying you have to enjoy that quest.

Even if you just want the favor, put up.an LFM for 20-30 saying "I can't jump. Please complete Spies on Elite for me?" And you'll have someone do it shockingly quickly.

[TedSandyman]

Not at all. I think it is lame that my hireling rogue has zero chance of detecting the trap that got me. The only way past it is dying the first time, or have someone tell you how to get past it. There is little adventure if you just follow an expert through these IMO.

You can definitely get through without a trapper. I've soloed it many times on elite with all kinds of characters. Almost all of the traps are avoidable. The lightning on the climb and the electric floors are the only thing you really have to worry about when you get familiar with it. The key to the electric floor is to get off it quickly. Know where you're running to. There is no key to the climb I don't think. Have enough hp and electric resist and you will probably be ok. Make sure to have some no stick shoes and the rest will be fine.

And I know where you are in terms of hating the dungeon. Some of the ones I hated most are now some of my favorite. Spies, Coal, the pit. Hated them all at one point. Hit them every life now and look forward to them. The frustration will go away eventually and you will enjoy the challenge of it. But yeah, getting to that point is a pain.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

So here is my rant: it seems that dungeons like this give players 2 options (1) Discover all the 'gotchas' through death, wasting a lot of time. Lame. (2) Go through with a seasoned player who shows you every little thing to do. Also lame.

Reminds me of my very first try of TOEE. Haven't tried it again since then. (Partly because of its sheer length.)

That's one of the great things about DDO. If you don't like one quest, you have more than 400 others to pick from.

If you can't do that quest, that's okay. You can still step in and pike on the Epic dailies and use the time to make a sandwich or somet. On Heroic, there's 0 need to run the quest because there's a huge amount of XP at that level elsewhere.

Not everyone has to like every quest. No one here is saying that you have to run that quest. No one here is saying you have to enjoy that quest.

I agree, that's the good thing about DDO : There's so much else to do ...

[Dalris_Thane]

That's one of the great things about DDO. If you don't like one quest, you have more than 400 others to pick from.

Fair enough. Now, I'm an emotion >>> (not enough chevrons) logic person, so you tell me.

Would it be fair to say that the proportion of "clever" quests is higher than "kick door" quests in newer content?

Or, said another way, I get the FEELING that many (most?) of the newer quests are of the "special" dungeon kind, rather than standard. Am I wrong? Because if not, there's little incentive for me to buy the newer quest packs.

Oh, and talk to me like I'm dim re: skills and ability to do this quests. Keep your expectations low about my cognition, heh. I just have good (?) vocabulary.

[rehakp]

Dear whiner,
PROBLEM :
Spies in the House is one of the most run dungeons in DDO. That may tell you to look inside first before blaming the dungeon.
As you say you were running it 1st time AND solo. You havent done any research and you expected to roll like superman solo ?
Well you failed.
DDO have some dungeons that are easier and some that are harder. Some that you can fail easy and some that you cant fail unless you pull boss and go AFK. Some that you only kill mobs and some that you actually need to know how to solve some puzzles to even be able continue.
Spies is one those that are very hard and very time consuming if you dont know what you are doing.
Thats your story ... you didnt known what you are doing.
But if you know what you are doing OR you swallow your pride and ask somone who knows what to do to run it with you 1st time its very quick a easy dungeon.
Thers reason its one of the most runed dungeons in DDO.
SOLUTION:
Dont assume you will complete solo every content without preparation on 1st try like knife thru hot butter.
You can try of course. But if you keep failing somewhere then maybe you could try to ask somone for help/advice instead of blaiming content.
In DDO there is content for everyone on scale of total noobz to elite raiders running hard quests on reaper 10.
Find your ballance and find the right content for you personally. Instead of trying content that is currently above your skill and blaming it.

[HungarianRhapsody]

Fair enough. Now, I'm an emotion >>> (not enough chevrons) logic person, so you tell me.

Would it be fair to say that the proportion of "clever" quests is higher than "kick door" quests in newer content?

Or, said another way, I get the FEELING that many (most?) of the newer quests are of the "special" dungeon kind, rather than standard. Am I wrong? Because if not, there's little incentive for me to buy the newer quest packs.

Oh, and talk to me like I'm dim re: skills and ability to do this quests. Keep your expectations low about my cognition, heh. I just have good (?) vocabulary.

At least for Ravenloft, the quests are fun and interesting, but very little Mario/jumping or special skills needed. Jumping is always useful as a caster, but that's just for keeping you out of melee range. I love The Pit and Coal Chamber and Spies and I *also* love Ravenloft, but I do think that Ravenloft will be much closer to what you like than Pit/Coal/Spies are.

I don't have Sharn yet. That's going to be coming this week for me with my bonus check.