Multi-Patch/Update Preview: The Soul Splitter Adventure Pack

[Cocomajobo]

Three of the six quests in the new content are available for the preview. Talk to the Questgiver NPC in Test Dojo and he’ll send you directly into the quests if you are a VIP. If you are not a VIP you can find the "The Soul Splitter" adventure pack in the DDO store and can gain DDO points from Lord Poincelot to purchase the adventure pack.

Unfortunately, the first half of the adventure pack is not yet ready for preview. As such, the below blurb meant to catch you up on the narrative so far before heading into the available dungeons for preview may contain slight spoilers. Read if you would like:

LIGHT SPOILERS DESCRIPTION:
In this pack, the player gets pulled into an investigation about Warforged disappearing in Sharn. They start off by searching for Dorris, an old friend and lieutenant of the Lord of Blades, who has vanished while on a mission from her superior. It turns out that people have been using a modified version of Vaunt’s device to rip the souls out of Warforged and turn them into compliant creatures devoid of free will. The Lord of Blades commands the player to figure out who is behind the ‘soul splitters’ and fix the problem … or he’ll take his army to Sharn.

Content Known Issues

• XP for the quests has not been finalized yet.
• Monsters in the new quests have not been fully statted yet – and in particular, do not do all of the combat tricks they will do in the final pack.
• It is possible to Q target and then use panes of glass in the end room of "Soul Survivor" before the objective to destroy them is active. If you do this it will block completion of the dungeon.

[FlavoredSoul]

Three of the six quests in the new content are available for the preview. Talk to the Questgiver NPC in Test Dojo and he’ll send you directly into the quests if you are a VIP. If you are not a VIP you can find the "The Soul Splitter" adventure pack in the DDO store and can gain DDO points from Lord Poincelot to purchase the adventure pack.

Unfortunately, the first half of the adventure pack is not yet ready for preview. As such, the below blurb meant to catch you up on the narrative so far before heading into the available dungeons for preview may contain slight spoilers. Read if you would like:

LIGHT SPOILERS DESCRIPTION:
In this pack, the player gets pulled into an investigation about Warforged disappearing in Sharn. They start off by searching for Dorris, an old friend and lieutenant of the Lord of Blades, who has vanished while on a mission from her superior. It turns out that people have been using a modified version of Vaunt’s device to rip the souls out of Warforged and turn them into compliant creatures devoid of free will. The Lord of Blades commands the player to figure out who is behind the ‘soul splitters’ and fix the problem … or he’ll take his army to Sharn.

Content Known Issues

• XP for the quests has not been finalized yet.
• Monsters in the new quests have not been fully statted yet – and in particular, do not do all of the combat tricks they will do in the final pack.
• It is possible to Q target and then use panes of glass in the end room of "Soul Survivor" before the objective to destroy them is active. If you do this it will block completion of the dungeon.

All of my YES, I've been wanting a return of the Lord of Blades for a long time.

[Kza]

Six new quests? I didnt see that comming! :-)

[HastyPudding]

Please tell me Dorris dies. *removed profanity*.

[PsychoBlonde]

The puzzle at the end of the last quest is just MEAN. I love it.

[GoldyGopher]

Comments on the Three Quests previewed.

Members Only
Hated it. No actually it was more than hate, it was a loathing and utter repulsion at first site.
I dislike the run around run around aspect of the quest. Distance between mob groups does not add challenge.
I dislike all the fake decorative doors. If you are going to put a door in the quest have it open and do something.
The Duke was a royal pain in the fanny. Every third swing was a whiff because he floating in the air and he has a metric long tonne of hit points.
The rest of the mobs need a serious balancing of hit points, one shot this, twenty hits on that.
The completion ding, never happened. I spent at least ten minutes AFTER I completed the quest trying to figure out what else I needed to do before I finally figured out I was done. I still had an objective for Canniff on the list (that I guess was optional)

The Offshore Account
It is so close to being a great quest, seriously. It's kind of painful that it is so close to being a great quest and falling short.
The Goblins inside the Accountants home didn't all activate when you enter the house.
The mobs on the outside terrace also didn't activate all together. In both cases I had to run around in circles make the last one appear activate (not sure where they were hiding either)
Why weren't the mobs on the terrace in the stairway up to the sky coach. It would make more sense.
A dwarf leading goblins? Maybe it was supposed to be a Special Goblin and What's her name was just a filler.
Okay this is where the quest fails at being a great quest. You beat the mini boss on the platform and free the skycoach driver and the skycoach appears. You click on it and are teleported into the Sharn Water Works, I mean water purifcation plant, ugh... If only the skycoach picked up the party, carried them over a wall and dropped down a shaft to the Water Purification Plant it would make this quest feel so much more immersive into the game. Instead the immersion ends. Yeah I know there is some issue with moving everyone and the size of the zone, but please. Make Sharn feel more like a city, rather than a series of shoe boxes stuffed together.
The wheels in the Water Purification Plant are mislabeled.
Mobs stating again.
It felt like the optional was way to short and I don't think it had a chest.

Soul SUrvivor
Awesome Visuals. No better than Awesome. Who ever was the artist creating those pieces, give them a raise and tell them to do more just like it.
When I was on the elevator I somehow got transferred from inside the car to on top of the car.
Some doors had levers others didn't. I couldn't open all the levers as they were blocked. All but one could be opened by the hireling.
Don't think I was supposed to know about the Lord of Blades when I did.

In the second part (with the original soul stripper to return Izzabet it broke and I could not open the door with the green and blue lights.

Couldn't complete the quest.

[JQP]

Probably won't have time to run these on Lamma, but looking forward to seeing them on live. I have really enjoyed the recent content and have been glad to see new quests in the 15-17 range. As you make your plans going forward, I hope we see some more content in the 18-19 range, too. Then maybe some more in low epics.

[0ldschool]

Members Only

Agatha Heacham - "My life has been one long nightmare since the garden rennovation started!" - Renovation, one n not two.

Puzzle: I like it!!

There is a security guardian in a corner, soon after puzzle, that my hires aggro on but cannot be harmed. It is stationary and does not attack. Weird.

Like climbing back up the ivy, but confused as to why I was there.

Beat the boss, get end chest, then continue downstairs and attack more rednames? I was wondering if I did something wrong. It felt like i completed the quest in the middle of the quest, not the end. The stairs down require going through the room with the end boss. So all below him are optionals for after completion?

At some point, the map erased areas that I had already explored and I had to re-explore them. Noticed this only after the quest was completed.

[lyrecono]

Three of the six quests in the new content are available for the preview. Talk to the Questgiver NPC in Test Dojo and he’ll send you directly into the quests if you are a VIP. If you are not a VIP you can find the "The Soul Splitter" adventure pack in the DDO store and can gain DDO points from Lord Poincelot to purchase the adventure pack.

Unfortunately, the first half of the adventure pack is not yet ready for preview. As such, the below blurb meant to catch you up on the narrative so far before heading into the available dungeons for preview may contain slight spoilers. Read if you would like:

LIGHT SPOILERS DESCRIPTION:
In this pack, the player gets pulled into an investigation about Warforged disappearing in Sharn. They start off by searching for Dorris, an old friend and lieutenant of the Lord of Blades, who has vanished while on a mission from her superior. It turns out that people have been using a modified version of Vaunt’s device to rip the souls out of Warforged and turn them into compliant creatures devoid of free will. The Lord of Blades commands the player to figure out who is behind the ‘soul splitters’ and fix the problem … or he’ll take his army to Sharn.

Content Known Issues

• XP for the quests has not been finalized yet.
• Monsters in the new quests have not been fully statted yet – and in particular, do not do all of the combat tricks they will do in the final pack.
• It is possible to Q target and then use panes of glass in the end room of "Soul Survivor" before the objective to destroy them is active. If you do this it will block completion of the dungeon.

So who in the dev team has been playing subnautica?
might i suggest some set dressing in the endquest so we can find our way? a lot of the rooms look alike. Some animals in the water, some more plants?

can't wait to see a sub, shaped like a kraken XD

[Aelonwy]

I only had time to run the first one, Members Only, I ran it on EN because I was solo. I like all the alternate ways to get where you need to go for completion. Hidden ladder up the vines in the garden was my favorite. But it did seem like there were some unnecessary doors between areas with no fighting.

I spoke to all the named members and successfully bluffed the owner/president lady at the dining table. She told me to go in the garden to fix the drains but the optional for getting permission to go in the garden did not check off nor did Chuffy give me an option to tell him the lady had sent me. So I'm not sure how to complete that particular optional. I found the book to give him while wandering around and that's how I got to the garden.

I liked the new mobs - prismatic dogs, spiders with gizmos, rats with gears... but I think I'd like them better if the base creatures themselves looked even more mechanical like the iron defender dogs... unless of course there is some story reason why they are a combination of mechanical + living creature.

Several of the orange name mobs were still labeled DNT Overseer, DNT Keeper. There was a broom just floating in midair in the kitchen.

Between Baxter and the Duke, I didn't feel there was enough to do in this quest. It needs one more named mob fight somewhere, maybe one of those orange named DNT mobs should have a real name and something worth chasing them down to do. Also even on just EN the Duke seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to slay. I mean he seemed to take longer than Baxter.

[Aelonwy]

Okay I got some additional time to run the remaining two quests.

Offshore Account:

When looking for clues in the apartment the DM text covers the yellow text from the clue itself so I was forced to open my general text tab to read what was trying to be said to me. Frustrating.

Going down in the water treatment plant ALL wheels claim to be the Green Wheel despite responding to the correct color/rune to open the doors/gate.

Didn't get the crayfish story because apparently once you agree to fight the otyugh he's finished talking with you. Weird that I will have to make not what NOT to click on in the dialogue to learn all the lore.

Quest seemed... too empty? Not enough to break, search, discover, collectibles? Otyugh should have had a chest even if it was just trash loot. I don't remember the dwarf lady having a chest either but maybe I just missed it.

Soul Survivor:

Looks awesome. Unfortunately at this point that is all it has going for it. So many of the notes were DNT and a snippet like "origin story". I was stymied on the ship for the longest time because I could see the glass wall and the lever behind it but couldn't figure out how to get to it. Eventually random clicking found the faucet-lever because that one would NOT show up when I used backspace as an actionable item. I still have no idea for what purpose the Dorris lever exists.

Going down into the underwater facility its quite breathtaking and somewhat reminiscent of a quest in KotR. Now I understand why the semi-fleshgolem creatures from the first quest exist. Needs more breakables and collectibles, many rooms feel empty. Quite a few door levers are blocked, partially inside walls but most are accessible if you move your character around to stand to the side of the door. However the one to access the restroom in the upper left hand corner opposite the employee barracks was entirely blocked inside the wall. I have a screenshot if it would help to understand the issue.

Going further down into the Abandoned experiments wing there were several rat rooms with black walls blocking the view of the space I'm fighting the rats in. I can post a screen shot if it helps.

I get to the room with the Stitcher... only NO I DON'T because he has a speech that just zips by on the screen so I opened my general text tab AGAIN to see what the heck was trying to be said to me and lo and behold the little lever flips, the door closes and I was unable to progress the quest because now I can't get into the room again to fight him. So I have to start all over again... as in restart the quest because a lever that will open the door once now refuses to work. I cannot express enough how something like this just irritates the tar out of me when it completely wastes my time.

[Aelonwy]

Reran final quest. As beautiful as this quest is I am having so many issues with it that much like Mad Tea Party I'm afraid I'm doomed to hate it just based on the problems that I am repeatedly having trying to complete. My current issue is EVE has fallen ON TOP of the dang puzzle making it beyond frustrating trying to see it and solve it because unlike other fallen enemies EVE never disappears. So I've tried to solve 6 times, each time it just resets. I've made sure to the best of my ability that none of the red circles will light up but again due to EVE lying right on top of it I cannot be sure that something isn't touching that I can't see.

Very frustrating especially when I usually have zero problems with these line puzzles.





Simply could not resolve it and then the server came down.
I tried solving for blue and solving for yellow neither worked.

[Noir]

*Snip* My current issue is EVE has fallen ON TOP of the dang puzzle making it beyond frustrating trying to see it and solve it because unlike other fallen enemies EVE never disappears. *Snip*

I can certainly see that this would be beyond frustrating but It also (now that we know of the potential pitfall. ) seems easily avoidable.
Much like aligning the Warforged titan in the end quest of the Titan raid one will have to be acutely aware of where the killing blow for
EVE is struck. Thank you Aelonwy for warning the user base of this potential quest hindering outcome.