U55 Preview 1 (5/10 - 5/12)

[Anthorin1]

What the s/s/s mats were changed to:
Crystallized Spiderweb
Desert Sand Crystal
Fractured Sliver of Time
Glowing Fen Mushroom
Medal of House Deneith
Scrap of Patterned Cloth
Vault Key

Ah ok

[Valerianus]

Is there any chance the key to eveningstar could be added to the teleport item options?

Edit: After reading through recent comments, t looks like this is already being discussed. I'll just add a note to mention I'd be very interested to see the CD of the key reduced and added to the teleport item, if at all possible.

(this is not a derail, i'm getting to the point at the end, and btw i fully agree and the fast travel items consolidation is really great!!!! but i want to add....)

imho

it would be really cool to fix the expansion trove, the only time they bundled something, it took 15 years, imho they botched it majestically, the wrong content, too late and too pricey.

wrong content i mean, motu and shadowfell were to be made f2p, and the rest bundled, to give new players a sense of seamless progression, a different story to follow in epics, more f2p races like they did are cool but the key is the content, new players could not care less about free races they'll never know they were made free, they'll just see gated content everywhere like e.g. right out from the grotto...i mean for real, think about it (most misplaced npc ever, borderland npc)

...and because of this idea of mine about more free content, a standard npc like the captain (just a npc, not an amenity) on airship, near the captain, a gatekeeper, to manage the extraplanar fast travel to expansions public areas like e.g. eveningstar and more destinations like e.g. grove and borderlands. the fast travel items should just be an extra. this is an instance-only game, keeping fast travel gated is no good since we'll probably never be able to teleport to quest entrance anyway, gating fast travel is only making things worse.


i mean, fixing the key is totally worth it, but imho we should think further and wider.

[DYWYPI]

The Isle of Dread (U55) Preview 1 Dungeons

For whatever reason with some of the U55 Preview quests they seemed to lack a bit of character. The dungeon structures almost seemed "oversized" as if giants or King Kong were meant to have been populating them. Perhaps with voice-overs and music; it'll give better atmosphere and experience.

The Curse and the Captive Crustacean: in this rather short quest; we are sent to deal with an contained: overgrown crab. Apparently the local Kopru enjoy the idea of "torturing" the poor crab with ballistae. Our task seemed to be attempting to use the ballista to try and overturn or incapacitate the now 'angry crab'.

Shoot your mouth off; you know where you're aiming.

Simple enough unlock and prime the ballista and fire at a large numbered target, hopefully whilst the crab is positioned in front of the said relevant target...

It appeared occasionally some of the ballista 'unlocked' even when puzzle hadn't been completed. I assume that's a bug; two lit tiles, instead of all three, were enough to unlock.

Looked down to the sea, all the crabs and the fishes.

I could imagine the quest being annoying for some soloing classes, i.e. trash pelting you with projectiles while you are trying to interact with the puzzle levers.


Plundering Pirates' Point: apparently the pirates seem to be fond of looting 'evil monoliths', perhaps they are amateur archaeologists. Anyway they also took some prisoners' and have a fortified wooden stockade.

Curse the sleek machines and their iron-coloured ships.

I liked the 'tainted water' effect that was a nice touch. The map was rather large and spaced out; it almost seemed over-scaled. There seemed to be quite a lot of prisoners randomly littered around to collect, which was tedious due to the large wasted area.

Neither of the first two quests was that impressive or memorable, they didn't give a great 'first impression' for an Expansion.


Bullywugs and Booby Traps: Kermit and Friends seem to have infested an ancient underground temple structure and been put in charge of the "Assassin's Blade". I liked some of the artwork of the dungeon and the fact it had collapsible floors. Albeit I would have preferred more cobwebs.

Got no more shelter, no more sun.

The too easily breakable stone totems, which fired force beams from their eyes, were OK. But they were probably overused or should have been better placed and higher density in one or two rooms.


Fall of the Forgotten Temple: this quest looked more polished - more completed - than the other three quests, which helped give it some atmosphere.

With my minion fingers, working for some God.

I can see why it was recommended the other three quests were completed prior to this quest. Again, we venture into a Kopru temple, but this time we're looking for a teleportation device.

Your mouth is full of wordless hymns.

The quest just seemed to keep sprawling; on and on... The corridors we're rather long and it didn't really help when many of the levers were hidden in obscure places. The long length was its biggest fault.

Journey till the end of the night.

I didn't manage to complete the quest; I possibly came across a bug or something, perhaps I killed a boss too fast? I know one of the early chests up a ladder, in a dead-end never unlocked.

My eyes are filled with prizes you've been showing.

I found the hidden Mud Cavern. Furthermore I did manage to get to room with the named chests and the shielded Isle Control Monolith.

However, there didn't seem to be a way to get that artefact itself, as seen in the image, nor open any of those chests nearby. I can only assume something didn't "trigger" correctly to let me progress... further.


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

[DYWYPI]

The Evil spirit, that was in charge of resetting the Bear trap jaws, was way cool! If being awesome was a crime, he would be serving a life sentence.

[...]

• The evil spirit that has been resetting so many bear traps after they've been triggered has been exorcised from DDO for now. Most bear traps will now only trigger once. ...

That's disappointing news; it makes bear traps even more irrelevant, their main charm within DDO, was the fact they triggered more than once. What happens if they trigger and snap shut, but you actually evade them does that mean they'll never be able to snare anyone? :-/

[DRoark]

A feat can't invoke the spell selection menu - so we'd be adding a new feat (or multiple) for each addition to the teleport destinations we support. We really don't want to keep adding data to characters in that way. Check out what the Dragonmark of Passage does in your enhancements menu for a glimpse into what that future holds.

Question. Wouldn't it be simpler to add an account flag for teleport items when clicked on (like the mounts are), so they are on the Mount tab? Destinations could then just be slotted as needed.
Zero inventory space needed, and less in the Cache. Also, will non-expansion-bundle items, such as the D12 (Marketplace) and Royal Guard Mask, going to be included in this? If so, it would make
items like that useful to try and get again. Server-side, it wouldn't be any more taxing than adding multiple mounts to one character, and less items to track.

[Bjond]

You may now trade 100 pack ingredients for a Star Fragment, and 100 Star Fragments and 500 Threads of Fate for a Nebula Fragment

It's great to see a route coming, but it's a bit steep. Since release, I've collected 54 Star and 6743 or ~120 Star Fragments. That's via one Saga each epic cycle. I do one cycle in about 3~5 days, usually closer to 5.

Not worried for myself or anyone else that's been playing with salt for a while, but anyone new coming along is gonna wince at roughly 6~8 months per nebula unless they indulge in some seriously mind-numbing grinding.

IMHO, 1~2 months of one saga per Heroic or Epic cycle should do it. However, the above data on my play style with salt might help you pick a better number in case you didn't start with a time-frame to acquire in mind; eg. go with 50s if you want 3 months instead of 6 months. That's assuming I'm typical, which might not be the case -- suspect I play more than most though certainly don't run salt as much as I've seen a few others do.

[DRoark]

It's great to see a route coming, but it's a bit steep.

They're literally charging us, at a rather inflated cost, for their own hideous programmed drop rate...

Haha, that's the true Soul of SSG showing right there.

[Aelonwy]

They're literally charging us, at a rather inflated cost, for their own hideous programmed drop rate...

Agreed. Been playing Saltmarsh with hubby since it came out, and with my son since he got it for Christmas, tried to get it for him at Black Friday but we were having problems with the internet browser and DDO Marketplace then. All the times we've run Saltmarsh and haven't seen a single Nebula fragment for any of us. Not one. Took a look at what you get access to with it and decided its better just to ignore those items. They effectively do NOT exist for me because of the awful drop rate. And this conversion rate while something palliative for someone who absolutely MUST HAVE a specific item for their gear isn't much of an improvement especially as it requires even more threads making it yet another advantage for raiders over non-raid players. Weird enough since not all the Perfected items are even raid items. Seems a shame to go to so much effort creating these items, the whole "secret" crafting devices tucked away in unusual places event? and then making the catalyst item so rare its not only a boundary to entry its effectively a Wonka Golden Ticket. Its like not getting access to a specific expansion where some of the best loot comes from without first having a Jibbers. The whole situation is laughable.

[Mindos]

And this conversion rate while something palliative for someone who absolutely MUST HAVE a specific item for their gear isn't much of an improvement especially as it requires even more threads making it yet another advantage for raiders over non-raid players

I think the Nebula Fragment turn in should have another purchase option. Keep the current Threads method, but I agree with you, a second, non-raid required method would be nice. Even if the amount turn-ins were larger than normal.

I just don't understand raid thread locking away a chaser item drop purchase when Saltmarsh doesn't even have a raid of its own. Make it purchasable with rare drop chits and 10 million hay.

[rabidfox]

I think the Nebula Fragment turn in should have another purchase option. Keep the current Threads method, but I agree with you, a second, non-raid required method would be nice. Even if the amount turn-ins were larger than normal.

I just don't understand raid thread locking away a chaser item drop purchase when Saltmarsh doesn't even have a raid of its own. Make it purchasable with rare drop chits and 10 million hay.

It takes 500 threads to make a perfected item; so if someone doesn't raid, the whole nebula/perfected thing hasn't been for them from the get-go.

[Mindos]

It takes 500 threads to make a perfected item; so if someone doesn't raid, the whole nebula/perfected thing hasn't been for them from the get-go.

Thinking more of a journey, with the creation of the quest (the nebula fragment) and the perfection of the journey (the creation of the perfected artifact).

I don't think the very beginning should be costing threads. Let people start! Have some fun, etc. The collecting itself is part of the journey. After a while, when people see what they have, and what they can do, then let them decide their next direction. Start raiding, etc. At least they would be able to go to the vendor and see and wonder what all could be possible!

[Aelonwy]

It takes 500 threads to make a perfected item; so if someone doesn't raid, the whole nebula/perfected thing hasn't been for them from the get-go.

Yes but... requiring 500 more threads (essentially double) from someone unlucky enough to NOT get a Nebula fragment in the first place is a tall ask for someone that might barely or only minimally raid.

The whole nebula crafting was a bit shady from the start. Oh look! there's this awesome, super secret crafting going on that you have to have a Golden Ticket rare item to explore the world to see the super secret cool new stuff. You didn't get one? Oh so sad for you, you didn't get to participate in the mystery. Oh look its a brand new class of items! Oh look they're better than the previous class of items! Oh look some of them aren't even raid items but if you want them they require raid ingredients. Oh you mean after nearly a year you STILL haven't gotten a single Nebula Fragment? Oh so sad for you, its going to cost you twice the raid ingredients.

If its going to cost that much time and effort just to participate in some portion of the game, is it worth it? that may be a very individual question. For me the answer is NO. So sorry they went to so much creative effort for these items, and this crafting. Maybe next time they'll spend that time and effort and creativity on something everyone can enjoy and participate in and NOT just a lucky few.

Really, really weird how in the very same update they did away with the luck based scroll/seal/shard crafting only to add a crafting requiring even more luck.

[Lyreaneia]

Before IoD goes live can there be some type of answer on Fatesinger Core 4 and Greater Shout sucking away spell absorb and NOT healing. This definitely should not be working as intended. It happened in both the test dojo, how I figured out there was a problem and in quests. I sucked away 1 charge from Crystalline Gauntlets, Jeweled Cloaks, and Magestars when doing a Greater Shout and sucked away 6 charges/Greater Shout on Pale Lavs. I posted on here AND in DDOdiscord/Lamania/U55General to make sure the issue was seen. May we have some type of response as to how this issue is going to be resolved before it goes live? Thank you ever so much!

[Bjond]

nebula crafting was a bit shady from the start [..]

If its going to cost that much time and effort just to participate in some portion of the game, is it worth it? that may be a very individual question. For me the answer is NO

I raid a ton and for me the answer is also a very solid NO. The key detail for me, though, is filigree+1 utility versus Suulomade's Heart. F+1 is "nice" everywhere in a very tiny minimal way, but the cost is insane both in terms of threads (which I'm always nearly out of) or farm-time (lol) versus runes or drops for Suulo (much MUCH easier for me).

I always start my L30 gear sets with Suulomade's and then work back from there. Heart isn't very good when curse-immunity isn't useful. It's that where it is useful, it's so nice that it's just shy of mandatory-nice.

I would treat curse-immunity as a swap item if I could -- being able to crunch it into a 1-slot essence would unlock all the perfected for me. It's not, though, which means swapping it cascades into a full-tetris gear change.

So, it's down to 1-tetris effort to make a Suulo set that only costs runes at the worst or a double-tetris effort that costs runes + more threads than I have (despite constant raiding) or insane farming? Pretty easy choice there. Just punt Filigree+1.

[DYWYPI]

Having rerun the: Fall of the Forgotten Temple, within the last few days...

[...] I didn't manage to complete the quest; I possibly came across a bug or something, perhaps I killed a boss too fast? I know one of the early chests up a ladder, in a dead-end never unlocked.

[...] However, there didn't seem to be a way to get that artefact itself, as seen in the image, nor open any of those chests nearby. I can only assume something didn't "trigger" correctly to let me progress... further. ...

I can confirm: I must have come across a bug at the time of U55 Preview 1. Because I would have already destroyed any orbs, in that final room and collected all the crests and technically would have fulfilled the prerequisites, etc. :-)