U44 Preview 2: Keep on the Borderlands

[Cocomajobo]

Disclaimer

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

Update 44 is expected to debut DDO's newest classic pack: Keep on the Borderlands! This adventure pack comes in both a heroic level 1-2 variant and an epic level 21-22 variant. To access the Keep on the Borderlands on the preview server (if you are not a VIP), simply speak to Lord Poincelot in the center island of the Test Dojo to be granted preview server specific DDO points and then "purchase" the Keep on the Borderlands Adventure Pack in the Low Level Adventure Packs section of the DDO Preview Store. You can then do any of the following in order to be transported to the Borderlands:

• Create a new character, complete the grotto, and speak to "Kregan the Gatekeeper" in Korthos Village.
• Speak to "The Questgiver" in the center island of the Test Dojo.
• Speak to "Kregan the Gatekeeper" in the Eberron Hall of Heroes.

Keep on the Borderlands is expected to contain, when released on live: A new public area, an adventure area, and 8 dungeons. All of these are available in this preview:

• Caged Beast 1/21 Short Length
• Obstructing the Orcs 1/21 Short Length
• The Bugbear Bandits 1/21 Short Length
• The Hobgoblin Horde 1/21 Medium Length
• Treasure Hunt 1/21 Short Length
• Total Chaos 2/22 Medium Length
• Violent Delights 1/21 Short Length
• Watch Your Step 1/21 Short Length

Known Issues

• A final XP pass has not yet been done.
• There is a large amount of placeholder text in the quest journal
• Load screens are all placeholder
• There are a few platforms in the public area with no physics
• Keep landscape: Irganon spawn behaving strangely
• The Bugbear Bandits: Creatures drop treasure bags
• Watch Your Step: Optional objective can't be completed if you kill the Kobold Chief first then talk to the Kobold Crone

Additional Fixes/Changes since Preview 1

• Monsters: Fire Beetles now look much less mechanical (They still need an animation polish pass)
• Public Area: Epic Vendor now sells Epic Hirelings to Epic Characters
• Public Area: A text pass has been done on the weaponsmith/vendor
• Public Area: Generic Merchant no longer mentions Stormreach
• Public Area: Questgivers now have titles
• Public Area: A small lighting pass has been done.
• Public Area: NPC horses in the stalls should no longer be in sync with one another
• Public Area: There is now a quest arc giver
• Landscape: Spider Crest no longer erroneously spawns in picnic area
• Landscape: Spider Crest can now more easily be picked up
• Landscape: Some small polish work has been done on monster placement
• Caged Beast: Exit Waypoint now has the appropriate rune displayed
• Caged Beast: Fixed an issue where the end boss would not move from its nest
• Watch Your Step: Now has an exit waypoint that is accesible
• Treasure Hunt: Made Braziers not breakables
• Treasure Hunt: Added in urns as breakables
• Treasure Hunt: Boss is able to be spoken to through the barrier for taunting purposes
• Treasure Hunt: The epic only traps have become more deadly
• All Content: DM Narration audio has been added
• All Content: The Keep on the Borderlands quests should now appear in the Adventure Compendium.
• All Content: On Epic difficulties the erroneous difficulty inflation has been curtailed
• All Content: Epic XP has had an adjustment
• All Content: Loadscreens have been added
• All Content: Quest Journal entries for the dungeons now have names

[Neo-Masamune]

I am a little curious, are those level 1 quests suposed to played at max dificulty ELITE? right? no reaper mode for level 1 characters... right?

[Cocomajobo]

I am a little curious, are those level 1 quests suposed to played at max dificulty ELITE? right? no reaper mode for level 1 characters... right?

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?

[PsychoBlonde]

In the quest Violent Delights, you fight Bloodgleam immediately at the end, so she was long dead before the secondary groups of mobs spawned, and hte DM says that "Bloodgleam whistles" to summon the dogs.

I'd suggest either changing that line or changing the fight so that you can't kill Bloodgleam before the ads are dead.

[Tist]

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?

I ran them on reaper, I would prefer to have reaper available for those that want it - see no reason to turn it off "just because".

Edit : for that matter, I'd like reaper to be available for korthos also.

[Cocomajobo]

Of particular note: If anyone encounters an instance of monsters remaining stationary (not moving from the spot they spawn in) please let us know. If you encounter we would love it if you could provide the following information:

• The quest (or landscape) name
• The difficulty you were in
• The monsters that you observed behaving in this way
• Type "/loc" into your chatbar and then copy/paste the resulting text here

Hopefully you don't run into this at all! But if you do we would love to hear about it.

[PsychoBlonde]

Last quest is AWESOME. I wasn't able to figure out where to get the seals for the kobold or orc shrine, though, are those in other quests? I thought I was pretty darn thorough in doing the other quests, but I didn't see the seals.

[PsychoBlonde]

Of particular note: If anyone encounters an instance of monsters remaining stationary (not moving from the spot they spawn in) please let us know. If you encounter we would love it if you could provide the following information:

• The quest (or landscape) name
• The difficulty you were in
• The monsters that you observed behaving in this way
• Type "/loc" into your chatbar and then copy/paste the resulting text here

Hopefully you don't run into this at all! But if you do we would love to hear about it.

The scorpions and rats that came out of the ground in epic elite Treasure Hunt did not move or attack. Sorry I don't have /loc, I didn't see this until after I finished.

[Neo-Masamune]

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?

So... i am level 1... dont see myself doing well at a level 1 quest with reapers and such on my back... for me, it could be like Korthos, Elite mode only. Makes no sense put a level 1 toon to fight reapers! Too scary! For me and probably for new players also!

My vote is for Elite, on max diff. (Come on people! Its level 1!)

[Tist]

So... i am level 1... dont see myself doing well at a level 1 quest with reapers and such on my back... for me, it could be like Korthos, Elite mode only. Makes no sense put a level 1 toon to fight reapers! Too scary! For me and probably for new players also!

My vote is for Elite, on max diff. (Come on people! Its level 1!)

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?

[DYWYPI]

I'm not sure if there was a bug or something with: Total Chaos?

I never saw the "Find and Confront their Leader" it didn't seem happen? Also I couldn't locate any Crests for the Evil shrines even though I must have covered most of the map.

I obviously had the Medusa following me (and found the Evil shrines). Although before talking to her I had cleared all mobs that I could possibly locate so maybe some trigger didn't occour.

[Saekee]

So... i am level 1... dont see myself doing well at a level 1 quest with reapers and such on my back... for me, it could be like Korthos, Elite mode only. Makes no sense put a level 1 toon to fight reapers! Too scary! For me and probably for new players also!

My vote is for Elite, on max diff. (Come on people! Its level 1!)

so don't click reaper...
this is not a starting point for new players; the whole idea is to challenge vets, so Yes to reaper

[Neo-Masamune]

so don't click reaper...
this is not a starting point for new players; the whole idea is to challenge vets, so Yes to reaper

I thought the idea was to give a fresh new start for those who were tired of doing korthos over and over...

As Severlin sayd back there when they announced it...


Sorry, i dont wanna spoil anybodys fun... for the guy who went mad, i play arcane archer, played so many times now i dont even know how many past lifes i have anymore...

And Bows are getting better! YAY! Nevermind what i sayd then... DONT FEAR THE REAPER??? or so? I may try and get killed... or i may try at level 2! at level 2 i can kill some nasty little reapers!

Enough sayd.

Cheers!

[Tist]

I couldn't locate any Crests for the Evil shrines even though I must have covered most of the map.

They come from other quests.

[Tist]

Just ran the chain, this time I used a toon with only 2 past lives, TR'd fresh, and granted level 2. I took a few items (maybe half) from the dojo lowest level ranged gear chest - nothing great, nothing with any DR or really much use at all tbh. I built inquis, and ran the whole lot on R1.
Chain hand in was a letdown, was just 3 level 1 randgens. Maybe put some random named items from this chain in here. The quest hand ins gave better items than the chain hand in did.

Still had no problems on the preview one quests, they all took no time again, no deaths.
The new quests took longer, just cos they are longer. Had a few deaths, but only when I had 1 or 2 reapers in the mix. For content on reaper diff with no reapers, I had no problems.

New in quest shrines look great, imo just replace the existing appearance with these new ones, so they are game-wide.
Borderlands general appearance and graphic style is nice.
The preview 2 quests have some really nice interiors, especially the cave appearance (in total chaos and other). Lots of nice lighting and some wall decorations, really good impression of the game - quite honestly it will be a letdown to go from playing this at lvl 1 or 2, and then hit the sewer graphics of the harbor.

Nice introductions to DDO staples, puzzles, traps, optionals, so on. Thankfully not using the more annoying things like jumping, blocked views, guard npcs.

Faction is set to gatekeepers. This is annoying, it means that everyone will still have to run korthos and other stuff to get coin lords. I understand it wouldn't make sense to be coin lords, but the reality is as I say, everyone will still want coin lords early.

In Treasure Hunt, going right on entering, the 3 maze .. rats? that you immediately encounter, do not move from their location, or fight, unless you move in the middle of them. Elsewhere this was resolved.

In Caged Beast on r1, the owlbear would not become trapped by the bear trap. If it's meant to, might need to up the trap DC or something. The rats were getting caught on it just fine.

In the goblin quest (watch your step was it?) There are static sitting/standing goblins that are not triggered yet. If you shoot them, the one hit triggers, and does not wake the other nearbys. Usually elsewhere, the others would wake too. This meant I could easily take these groups out in advance by just triggering one at a time. Probably not supposed to work that way, it felt cheezy.

Looking forward to pack release and adding it to my TR quest sequence.

[Sir_Noob]

You are on server 23 at r3 lx394 ly1644 i10 ox43.36 oy86.94 oz265.57 h355.8. Game timestamp 35070.587.

[DYWYPI]

Since all the quests in this Preview could be done in any order. The quest 'Total Chaos' just happened to be the second quest I entered and I suspect that's the main reason I didn't already have those three "Crests".

They come from other quests.

Thanks, that would explain things slightly as after 'Total Chaos', which I never completed as can be seen from the screenshot below. I moved onto 'Violent Delights' and received a Gnoll artefact.

Therefore I'm still wondering as per [Post #11], if I encountered a trigger bug for "Find and Confront their Leader"?

To be honest Dungeon Designers; I'd rather you didn't need to acquire those three objects for 'Total Chaos' because it clutters the Inventory even more with items.

Furthermore some of the puzzles in the second batch of four quests in this Preview were not that friendly to people with certain cognitive disabilities. :-/

Aside: Team DDO, if you allow Reaper with the Heroic quests in this Adventure Pack then you should also remove Reaper the restrictions on Korthos Island quests. Personally I'd prefer that you kept this Adventure pack Reaper free for the Heroic versions. Then you won't be introducing double standards, etc.

We're all in the same game, just different levels. Dealing with the same hell, just different devils.

[FlimsyFirewood]

Since all the quests in this Preview could be done in any order. The quest 'Total Chaos' just happened to be the second quest I entered and I suspect that's the main reason I didn't already have those three "Crests".



Thanks, that would explain things slightly as after 'Total Chaos', which I never completed as can be seen from the screenshot below. I moved onto 'Violent Delights' and received a Gnoll artefact.

Therefore I'm still wondering as per [Post #11], if I encountered a trigger bug for "Find and Confront their Leader"?

To be honest Dungeon Designers; I'd rather you didn't need to acquire those three objects for 'Total Chaos' because it clutters the Inventory even more with items.

Furthermore some of the puzzles in the second batch of four quests in this Preview were not that friendly to people with certain cognitive disabilities. :-/

Aside: Team DDO, if you allow Reaper with the Heroic quests in this Adventure Pack then you should also remove Reaper the restrictions on Korthos Island quests. Personally I'd prefer that you kept this Adventure pack Reaper free for the Heroic versions. Then you won't be introducing double standards, etc.

We're all in the same game, just different levels. Dealing with the same hell, just different devils.

"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.

[PsychoBlonde]

Complete set of videos of the various quests on epic elite:

[PsychoBlonde]