Dungeons And Dragons Online: Weekly Development Activities (Feb 20, 2007)

Well with the holiday yesterday, Samera is posting her weekly dev report today. Here it is:

In QA

These items are in QA and should be part of the next update, "Academy Training".

General

• The first time looting a chest after the ransack timer has expired will now properly result in normal loot for that chest.
• NEW - Corrected a bug that was not properly limiting treasure levels in chests if the character was much lower level than the quest.
• NEW - The Who Panel has been re-engineered to use up less client memory. Players on higher population servers will see a greater performance increase.
• Occasional accidental interactions with items in your backpack that are selected while interacting with objects in the world have been fixed.
• By popular vote we have added the /stop emote into the game.

UI Improvements

• NEW - Removed the sorting arrow from the outstanding request window in the social panel, since those columns are not sortable. This also fixes a formatting bug that would break up the world "level" to two lines.
• Auctions
  • The Auction UI will now better estimate time remaining on items posted for sale.
  • There is now a "cancel bid" button so you may remove bids, as long as you are no longer the high bidder. This will allow you to bid on more items at one time.
  • Added page number and total number of pages display to the bottom of the auction list.
  • When you change pages the new page will now sort based on your previously selected criteria.
  • Once you select a sort type, the auction house will remember your choice and always sort by that criteria until you select another sort button.
    

Monsters

• The Marilith's Efreeti Elite Guards now display their names above their heads to indicate to players that they have the boss ward effects on them.

Combat

• NEW - Attack three in unarmed attack chains no longer gets a +15 but respectively gets a +5 to hit just like all the other weapon styles for their second attack.

Spells

• The false life spell temporary hitpoints buff will no longer stack with the false life favor reward buff.
• Deific vengeance is now considered "good" damage, and is amplifiable by any effects that increase good damage.
• Heroes feast now has our intended (1 minute per level) duration.
• The Protection from Energy spells now state the correct duration in their descriptions.
• NEW - Spell critical chance and spell critical multiplier items and enhancements now stack with each other. Previously if you had an item that had a 10% bonus to spell crit and a feat that granted a 15% bonus to spell crit you would only receive the 15% bonus. Now you will receive a 25% bonus. Because of this, both enhancements and items will have a corresponding reduction in bonus (please note: if you have a chance to crit, your base critical multiplier will be 1.5x before any items or enhancements). For example:
  
  • Minor Acid Lore - Acid spells have a +3% chance to critical hit.
  • Lesser Acid Lore - Acid spells have a +3% chance to critical hit. Increase Acid spell critical damage by adding 0.25 to the spell critical damage multiplier.
  • Acid Lore - Acid spells have a +6% chance to critical hit.
  • Greater Acid Lore - Acid spells have a +6% chance to critical hit. Increase Acid spell critical damage by adding 0.25 to the spell critical damage multiplier.
  • Superior Acid Lore - Acid spells have a +9% chance to critical hit.
    

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

• Song of Freedom is now properly adding bard level to its dispel checks.
• NEW - Paladin Aura of Good bonuses to AC and saves have been reduced from 2 to 1. Paladins who wish to increase their Aura of Good bonuses will need to buy enhancements to do so.

Enhancements

• Many enhancements now have more informative descriptions, including barbarian Powerattack, Divine Healing, Divine Vitality, Improved Empower Heal, Dwarven Shield Mastery, Fighter's Mobility, halfling Heroic Companion, rogue's Haste Action Boost, Improved Empowering, Improved Heightening, and Improved Maximizing.
• NEW - Class trainers now all offer the option to reset enhancements.
• Divine Cleansing has been updated so that in addition to giving a minute long bonus to fortitude saves, it also dispels a series of effects depending on tier:
  • Divine Cleansing 1: +4 bonus on Fort Saves, dispels poison and disease
  • Divine Cleansing 2: +6 bonus on Fort Saves, dispels poison, disease, blindness, and curses
  • Divine Cleansing 3: +8 bonus on Fort Saves, dispels poison, disease, blindness, curses, paralysis, and petrification
• The Divine Light cleric enhancement, rather than being a single target damage to undead, is now a AOE damage to undead centered on the caster. In addition, we increased the amount of damage done to be more in-line with the optional turn-undead variant rule.
  • Divine Light 1: 4d6 light damage, will dc 14+charisma mod half
  • Divine Light 2: 8d6 light damage, will dc 18+charisma mod half
  • Divine Light 3: 14d6 light damage, will dc 24+charisma mod half
    
• NEW - The dwarven spell resistance enhancement is now known as "spell defense", to differentiate it from actual spell resistance.

Items

• Due to popular demand the alchemists in Stormreach now supply a funnel with all Potions of Remove Paralysis and Lesser Restoration. Henceforth, these potions will now be used on the player's current target. Place the Remove Paralysis or Lesser Restoration potion in a hotbar. Select your target, and then activate the potion on your hotbar. All other potions retain their original functionality.
• Items with bane effects on them will once again be properly named.
• The Grammarian Union has decreed a change to the plural form of Calliphor's Philactery: the archaic plural form, Siberys Dragonshards, should no longer be used in formal settings and should now be called Calliphor's Phylacteries instead. (This should clear up some confusion in the Auction House.)
• The Righteous effect will now do its additional +2 damage versus all Evil creatures.
• "Universal" damage amplification effects such as Efficacy and Potency items will now work on spells with unusual damage types (Blade Barrier, Cometfall, Icestorm, Flamestrike etc.).
• Items must now be fully repaired in order to be posted in the Auction House.
• NEW - If you threw your Nightforged item away or sold it to an NPC merchant, Galrias in the Black Anvil Mines will now begrudgingly be willing to forge you a new one, but he won't be happy about it. He will send his apprentice to check with House Kundarak to verify that items are not being stored in bank accounts and he is not being cheated.
• NEW - Dragonshards now properly show up in the trade window. This was a display issue only: they could always be traded, but it was confusing since they didn't show up in the trade window.
• NEW - Penny Whistles now look like whistles not necklaces.
• NEW - The Mummified Bat trinket now more batlike in appearance.

NPCs

• Guard Killmarten is no longer a pushover: when he asks for the 20 gold bribe to enter the marketplace, he will now actually collect it instead of giving you a free pass.

PVP

• The regen effect in PvP arenas no longer goes away on death.
• Column headers will now be correct when going from a Deathmatch to Capture the Flag arena.

Quests

• NEW - Arzag-Khor Sewers
  
  • Prantag will no longer respawn.
    
• NEW - Menechtarun
  
  • Chamber of Raiyum will now correctly have a mapnote.
    
• The Necropolis
  
  • All quest tombs should now be appropriately marked.
  • NEW - Loremistress Jinna is now clear in her text if repeating the crypt quest will reset the entire quest chain or not.
  • NEW - The Shadow Crypt
    • NEW - Dame Calla will now only speak to one player at a time.
    • NEW - The Shadow Altar will now give you an upgraded amulet even if you are overencumbered or have a full inventory.
  • NEW - Tomb of the Shadow King
    • The DM Text now indicates which direction you need to lure Nsu.
• NEW - Parthilcar Tower Crypt - The Enemy Within
  
  • You will no longer be able to block Lord Ymemrish's path (thereby breaking the quest).
    
• Twilight Forge
  
  • Pillars in the titan fight will no longer knock each other over.
    
• The Vulkoor Spiral
  
  • Several adventuring parties from Stormreach report sightings of heavily laden parties of Drow entering the Vulkoor Spiral.

Under Development

These items are currently in development and are scheduled for Module 4: Reaver's Bane.

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.