Dungeons And Dragons Online: Weekly Development Activities (Jan 8, 2007)

Time for the weekly development activities report:

In QA

These items are in QA and should be part of the next update, "Litany of the Dead: Part 2".

General

• You will now regenerate death XP debt slowly while in town (not in dungeons) or while logged off.
• We have fixed a condition where characters could periodically enter a state where healing over time and damage over time effects (including city regen, tavern regen, and food) were not working.
• NEW - When running a dungeon in solo mode, there is no longer an XP penalty for leaving and reentering.
• NEW - Anonymous players will now be able to join parties and post LFM messages without problems.
• Displaying players only LFG in the Who panel should be much snappier now.
• Fixed several incorrect mapnotes.
• Swimming underwater on low or medium graphics settings will no longer produce a strobe-like effect.

UI Improvements

• The /gather emote is now available.
• The highlight on the activated action bar is now more visible.
• When you are creating a party and someone asks to join your group, you will now be able to send them a tell, accept or decline their invitation, and even open the "create party panel" right from the chat box. This is in addition to the old method of accessing these functions.
• Auctions
  
  • All emails sent regarding auctioned items now include the item name.
  • NEW - When you successfully buy out an auction item, you will receive an immediate chat tell message informing you about the successful purchase.
    
• If you switch from one character to another, you should no longer see your previous character listed in the "Who" panel.

Monsters

• Mummies will no longer occasionally heal themselves to death.
• Wraiths should no longer attack or cast while invisible and untargetable.
• The "spin attack" of vampires will now actually do damage.

Combat

• NEW - Ammunition that is Secured(Item Locked) will no long be automatically loaded if you run out of ammo in your ammo slot.

Spells

• Undead (except for incorporeal undead), vermin, and earth elementals are no longer immune to the trip portion of the Cometfall spell.
• Sorcerers will now be able to activate Level 6 spell scrolls using a caster level check.

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

• We have changed how Mobile Spellcasting works. Now all players can cast while on the move with half their normal movement speed. However, with Mobile Spellcasting, you can move at full speed. Consequently, the Improved Mobile Spellcasting feat has been removed, as Mobile Spellcasting will now have the same effect Improved Mobile Spellcasting previously had. Players who had the Improved Mobile Spellcasting feat will gain a single free feat respec.
• The lockpick animation will now take the same amount of time for all races.

Enhancements

• Halfling characters should no longer be able to get themselves into a state where they are stuck with more than 4 enhancements and cannot swap them out.
• The Smite Evil enhancements family has a new icon.
• Favored Enemy (Gnoll) no longer has a blank icon.

Items

• Drops of Ancient Bronze tokens have been greatly increased.
• All Gnoll bane and Goblinoid bane weapons will now get their to-hit and damage bonuses against the correct target types.
• Monsters shaken by the "roaring" effect on several named items will now have a "shaken" fear symbol over their heads.
• Your ears will now be visible when equipping halo or tiara type headgear.
• Gauntlets will no longer be created with minimum required levels that are higher than level 12 when looting chests in CR 12 dungeons on Elite. Existing gauntlets will not be changed. If you have gauntlets that are higher than minimum level 13 or higher you can either sell them or hold onto them for when the character level cap is increased in the future.
• The Telekinetic effect on Whirlwind and Sirroco has been changed to use a Balance check to resist the knockdown instead of a Trip save. This means that in most cases monsters will now resist the knockdown more than they did before because most of the monster bonuses (size, number of legs, etc) are only applied to Balance saves.
• Both the Planar Gird and the Cape of the Roc will now be found in the Clothing section of the Auction House. Previously these items were listed in the Jewelry section.

NPCs

• NEW - The missing collectors from House Deneith are now in place with new examples of alchemical goodness to distribute.

Quests

• NEW - The Circle of Eternity
  
  • Fixed an AI issue that caused several fire elementals to become stuck.
• NEW - The Court of Lailat
  
  • The first encounter with Queen Lailat will now reset if all the players in her throne room die.
    
• Three-Barrel Cove
  
  • The Fire Caves
    
    • Adjusted the lava depth and added a ledge to help ensure players could reach a chest.
      
• Haunted Library
  
  • Moved a trap control box so that it is actually accessible to players.
    
• NEW - The Necropolis
  • Raddha Cross will now refer to the vampire using his proper name.
    
• NEW - The Sands of Menechtarun
  • Vorvand Darkfur's chest should now unlock when he dies.
    
• NEW - Spawn of Whisperdoom
  • Fixed several optional objectives so that they can now be completed.
    
• NEW - Spire of Validus
  • Improved DM Text with better feedback regarding the Lich's treasure room.
    
• NEW - Vault of Night
  
  • Prison of the Mind
    
    • This quest will no longer be counted twice for both House Kundarak favor and Total favor.
      

Under Development

These items are currently in development and are scheduled for some time after the next update.

General

• The elven female avatar now has the braided hairstyle available.

Monsters

• The Hobgoblins have finally gotten their long-delayed and much-needed shipments of bows. Now, wherever hobgoblins live, there is a chance they will have some archers amongst their ranks.