U44 Preview 2: Keep on the Borderlands

[QueenOfTheHook]

I


I thought a lot about why this pack might or might not have reaper enabled. I think in the end it comes down to concern for the new player experience - if a brand new player somehow manages to end up playing their first quest at reaper difficulty, and then they wipe to reapers, they will not enjoy the experience and may not play the game - you may lose a potential customer.

How many brand new players fresh off the streets start with VIP? This zone is not f2p so they should not be able to just stumble into a reaper quest. I totally 100% agree with the decision to not make Korthos to be done on reaper for your reasoning though. I did not check to see if The Keep teleporter is there if you run the tutorial and end up in snowy side Korthos.

[Tist]

How many brand new players fresh off the streets start with VIP? This zone is not f2p so they should not be able to just stumble into a reaper quest. I totally 100% agree with the decision to not make Korthos to be done on reaper for your reasoning though. I did not check to see if The Keep teleporter is there if you run the tutorial and end up in snowy side Korthos.

The keep teleporter dude is looking right at you when you spawn. You can't miss.

I agree, my extended point was exactly what you hilight. Either you are multilife and should know, or you are paying vip and invested already, and probably should know.

[Blah2]

So DON'T CLICK REAPER! no-one is gonna remove elite and force you to run reaper.

What class do you play? Let's remove that, cos I don't play it. I know some people might, but I don't.
What weapon do you like to use? Let's remove those, there's plenty of others and I decree you must use only weapons I choose.

What on earth are people thinking?! Why would you want to force some arbitary wierd limit on other people?

Exactly this... Then don't go in on reaper, problem solved!!

[Blah2]

Do these quests give tokens/fragments of the twelve? If not then Devs please consider this

[PsychoBlonde]

Do these quests give tokens/fragments of the twelve? If not then Devs please consider this

They drop other ingredients. It doesn't really make sense that they'd have Tokens of the Twelve, though, as they're Classic Module quests not Eberron quests, so they don't even take place in the same plane as the Twelve.

Although, ahem, the WPM quests other than WPM itself are actually IN the Twelve so . . .

Also epic versions of Terminal Delirium (not that anyone runs that quest), Fashion Madness, and Palace of Stone . . .

[DYWYPI]

As I've mentioned in the prior Preview 1 the Borderlands Wilderness is very bright perky and fairytale and it can be quite picturesque at times. I don't know why but the words "Evil Chaos" sound to me as if they belong in child's Comic book rather than a dark and sinister threat.

Ah look, the trees are calling me. Golden trees of majestic splendour.

Total Chaos: I think you went a bit overboard with the frequency of the tongue-in-cheek monster names - less-is-more. The temple had a lot of interesting and good artwork going on throughout the cave network. The Voiceovers were done well with regards to explaining the storyline and the spirit voices. There were a few amusing situations poking fun at your "heroic" actions, etc. The dungeon was rather large and took a long time to explore though it makes sense with it being the finale dungeon.

She's got the flower that's groovy.

I briefly commented in [Post #17] what I disliked about this quest, e.g. having 'Inventory space' consumed by the artefacts from other quests.

After it was confirmed, that I needed to retrieve the three artefacts from other quests for that Optional I did decide collect all three. Albeit for whatever reason I somehow lost the Gnoll Artefact. So I didn't bother a second attempt at this dungeon; to see if I could complete it or what I could summon, etc. That's a shame really thus spoiling it somewhat.


The Hobgoblin Horde: it doesn't look like Team DDO have corrected the misspelling of the word "CHIEFTAIN". I have no idea why it's still misspelt; I clearly pointed that error out the last preview within The Bugbear Bandits. It felt like a longer version of the quest: The Bugbear Bandits. Some of the levers were positioned where they weren't that easy to find.


Violent Delights: overall this quest was quite fun and had a fairly solid plot without being overlong, and it was entertaining. Albeit it was a little hard for me to remember (I have a faulty short-term memory) where all the individual Gnolls were positioned. Additional map markers would have helped reduce some of the backtracking I had to perform to locate the relevant Gnoll NPC location(s).


Obstructing the Orcs: there were two opposing Orc tribes living in one small cave complex and the Character's task was to investigate and clear the caves. Again, this was another nice but very short quest and made good use of the dungeon furniture "sabotage" interactions.


I had another run through the quest: Watch Your Step. This time the Crone seemed to have additional dialogue. I had pacified her before in Preview 1, but within this Preview she seemed to also give me the Kobold Artefact. That's probably one of quests that I preferred from the eight, it could have easily been lengthened and had more subplots.

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

[Blah2]

They drop other ingredients. It doesn't really make sense that they'd have Tokens of the Twelve, though, as they're Classic Module quests not Eberron quests, so they don't even take place in the same plane as the Twelve.

Although, ahem, the WPM quests other than WPM itself are actually IN the Twelve so . . .

Also epic versions of Terminal Delirium (not that anyone runs that quest), Fashion Madness, and Palace of Stone . . .

Once they allowed UNDEAD pale masters to be healed by positive energy
all lore of this game can be ignored. Again tokens of the twelve please in these epic quests. There is NO reason not to add them.

[LurkingVeteran]

Once they allowed UNDEAD pale masters to be healed by positive energy
all lore of this game can be ignored. Again tokens of the twelve please in these epic quests. There is NO reason not to add them.

Fun fact, PMs in D&D 3.5 which DDO is based on, actually never turned undead. That was a DDO re-intepretation.

This is the closest thing you will find in the D&D PM tree (Libris Mortis):

Deathless Mastery (Ex): On reaching 10th level, a pale master gains the virtues of his deathless arts. His body becomes partly mummified (though he is not truly undead), and he becomes immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, death effects, critical hits, ability drain, and energy drain, as well as damage to his physical ability scores (Str, Dex, and Con). He still needs to breathe, eat, and sleep as normal for his type, and he still ages normally.

Turning into a Lich was an entirely separate (usually Epic) process, and I don't think there was a way to turn into a sentient zombie or spectre.

[DYWYPI]

I possibly killed the "High Priest" although to be honest I cannot recall the exact names of those bosses as I wasn't paying enough attention. The odds are my Assassin killed him within in one or two swings of her blades. He certainly won't have lasted more than two hits...

"Find and confront their leader" is supposed to trigger when the high priest gets low on health and tries to run away from the fight. Did you one-shot him? There's a known issue that's been fixed on the dev build, but not on Lamannia.

If you don't mind, tell us what happened with him in the secret chambers in your case? There might be something else going on with the script.

I found a Secret Shrine, although I don't know where the "secret chambers" are located?

Ilya, I assume you mean the northern cult-like rooms with; magical barriers, curtains, pews, shrines, secret doors, treasure and all sorts of radiating badness - suspiciously like an dastardly "evil boss" den. It did have a breathing boss in there for a few seconds, which I assume was the highest ranked Priest. As the Medusa later wanted to go there; long after I had killed everything I could find on the map.

I completely skipped the floor Puzzle (I explained prior as to why) and used all the Secret doors if that helps? Plus of course I didn't bother with those coloured Keys for any door that I could unlock with Thieves' Tools. I assume; what to me, looked like the High Priest character did try to run. Albeit I'd have put him out of his misery within the blink of an eye...

That might explain why I couldn't complete the quest - I simply killed him too fast. LOL

Update: I certainly killed the 'High Priest' extremely fast; as I've just seen a video and do remember quickly killing that guy. Plus I also had a screenshot of his text: (Say) High Priest says, 'Intruders?, in my inner sanctum?! Inconceivable!'. He didn't actually manage to make his getaway and escape into the corridor, etc.

[PsychoBlonde]

Turning into a Lich was an entirely separate (usually Epic) process, and I don't think there was a way to turn into a sentient zombie or spectre.

Actually, ANY 11th level or higher caster (not character level, caster level) can turn themselves into a lich in 3.X edition. They just need the Craft Wondrous Item feat, 120,000 gp, and 4,800 xp that they're willing to burn. Oh, and not mind committing acts of indescribable evil.

[Blah2]

*snip* That was a DDO re-intepretation.


*snip*

Exactly. Rest of this post is irrelevant. Please add tokens of the 12. Thanks in advance

[Talon_Moonshadow]

They currently can be. We have not yet determined whether we want to leave that as is or to remove Reaper Access from the Heroic versions of these quests. What would you prefer?

My 2CP: with 8 quests, just how long do people think they will be lvl 1?
Seems to me having reaper gives more playability as people lvl up (quickly as they always do.)

Plus even at lvl 1, just how much of a challenge is elite for us completionist people who horde even lvl 1 loot for our next lives.


I vote reaper.