Dungeons And Dragons Online: Weekly Development Activities (Apr 02, 2007)

As we get closer and closer to Module 4 release here are things in testing and some in development:

In QA

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

General

• NEW - We have made a significant upgrade to our monsters' ability to path plan and move around by leveraging the Kynapse powered by Kynogon SDK. The result is that monsters should be more lively and active in engaging players, better able to reach areas they want to, and less likely to do things like fall off of cliffs accidentally. Several other issues related to monster behavior have also been fixed, and fighting monsters will hopefully be more interesting and enjoyable than it has ever been before. Please note: this is just the first phase of our planned upgrade to our AI, we will be making additional improvements in the future.
• NEW - Fixed an issue where players could not climb off the top of a ladder if a monster was standing in their way.
• You can no longer bid or place auctions if your mailbox is sufficiently overflowing.
• Players should no longer lose attached items when sending them to a player whose mailbox was full.
• The elven female avatar now has the braided hairstyle available.
• Fixed the paladin and ranger class descriptions in character generation to give the correct level that spells are bestowed (no functional change has been made to these classes).

UI Improvements

• The "Anonymous" checkbox will now properly toggle your anonymous status.
• The WhoUI has gotten a face lift! The Who entries should be more easier to read.
• The feat selection page during character generation has received a face lift, it now uses the tech developed for the new enhancement system to provide improved display and sorting of feats for chargen.
• The "delete mail" dialog will now close when you walk away from the Mailbox.
• Opening the spell exchange dialog and then walking away from your trainer no longer prevents the window from being opened again.
• Previously, if you used a spell which brings up a dialog to choose a sub-spell, such as Resist Energy, clicked and held on a spell and hit escape to close the dialog, you would no longer be able to reopen the dialog box. This has been fixed.
• Players can now (optionally) display the cooldown remaining on actions in their shortcut bars!
• You can now clear your biography text.
• The guild display will no longer block mouse clicks.
• The character sheet will now display all of a players class name.
• The character sheet stats tab now has tooltips describing each stat.
• Auctions
  
  • The item field will now properly clear in the Auction UI after an item is posted.
  • Players should no longer receive an error message when attempting to cancel auctions.
  • Great Crossbows now have a category under Weapons->Exotic.
  • Throwing weapons will now appear in the Weapons->Missile subcategories.
    
• The icon for Summon Monster has been changed to better reflect what the spell does.
• NEW - Fixed a problem with the "default" button on the keymapping page.
• NEW - We have fixed House Kundarak's map so that it properly identifies the location of the entrance to Black Anvil Forest.
• The Raise Dead confirmation box has been edited for grammar and conciseness.

Monsters

• Fire reavers, fleshrenders, and ice flensers that had hard and elite versions with damage reduction which could be bypassed by cold iron weapons (DR/Cold Iron) now have a very small amount of the same on the normal setting. This is in addition to the DR/Good that they already had. This brings them in line with the hard and elite versions, many of which have always had both of these types of damage reduction. Keep a good-aligned cold iron weapon handy to dispatch these creatures as quick as possible.
• 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.
• Incorporeal creatures (such as wraiths or spectres) now ignore solid fog slow effects.
• Summoned and Charmed monsters have had their AI improved. Monsters can once again be re-charmed after a broken charm, and are now much better at following their masters about.
• Giant stomps are now area of effect attacks. The knockdown associated with them is now an on-hit effect.
• Djinni should no longer cast spells in whirlwind form, and should no longer get stuck in whirlwind form forever.
• Gnoll archers now use arrows appropriate for their CR.
• NEW - As per D&D rules, Voidmind monsters are now immune to ability/stat damage and mind affecting spells and abilities such as charm, fear effects, suggestion and the like.
• Frostmarrow skeletons have received a graphical upgrade.
• Fixed a handful of issues that could make minotaur charges look odd.

Combat

• Many rogue and ranger type enemies have gained the evasion and/or improved evasion feats and now have the benefits of these feats.
• A few enemy spell casters will be using metamagic feats to improve their spells. Going forward, this will be an option for enemy casters to take. However, no casters who are already in game will be getting metamagic feats for Module 4. If and when they are given any of these feats, their current levels, spell lists, and casting stats will be reviewed and adjusted if necessary.
• NEW - You can no longer attack, cast spells, or perform skills while in a web.
• NEW - Fixed Barbarian Power Attack I, II, and III so that the two-handed weapons now do an additional 2, 4, or 6 additional damage respectively.
• Monsters will no longer die in a spectacular manner (freezing then shattering, melting from acid, burning up from fire, etc.) unless they have been damaged by an imbued effect within the few seconds before their death.
• Creatures killed with Lawful, Chaotic, and Evil (or negative energy) effects will now play appropriate (and new!) fatalities.
• Lawful effects will no longer trigger the "Holy" death throes.
• The red pulse when a monster is struck in combat has been toned down to be more aesthetically pleasing.
• NEW - Vermin Empathy will now give you the proper visual feedback when you get a hit.

Spells

• The saving throw interval for the Flesh To Stone spell has been increased to 1 minute.
• Nimbus of Light no longer erroneously caps out at caster level 5.
• Acid Fog no longer consumes additional spellpoints when the Heighten Spell metamagic feat is active.
• The Symbol spells originally introduced in Module 3 (Fear, Persuasion, and Flame) now have a persistent "ring" FX that indicate the spell's area.
• Symbol of Flame now correctly bypasses Spell Resistance.
• Longstrider, Expeditious Retreat, Haste, and See Invisibility all have new FX.
• Fixed Burning Blood description to indicate that a save only occurs on application, not each round, as it previously stated.
• More information was added to the feeblemind effect tooltip to let players know how this effect can be removed (by the Heal spell or by death).

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

• Bardic music can now alert nearby monsters to your presence.
• The hamstring, slicing blow, and sap feats no longer require a fortitude save DC. If the attack hits, the effect is automatically applied with no additional save required. The hamstring and slicing blow feats also now use their own FX.
• Updated descriptions for sunder, improved sunder, stunning blow, trip, improved trip to better describe what the feats do.
• Invisibility and stealth now break on the use of offensive skills such as intimidate or diplomacy.
• Turn undead will no longer nuke friendly undead (i.e. those from the "Create Undead" spell, or on your side due to the "Command Undead" spell).
• Rolls of a one on a balance check to stand up after a knockdown are no longer auto-failures; 20s are no longer auto-successes.
• It is now possible to trade spell focus: illusion for greater spell focus: illusion (please note: these two feats do the exact same thing.)

Enhancements

• Many enhancement descriptions have been rewritten to improve clarity or have had information added to them. For example, the sprint boost enhancement descriptions now include the percentage of speed increase you receive.
• Fixed an issue which caused some level 12 capped characters to have their enhancements reset if they choose their enhancements the first time they logged in after a patch and then logged out.
• NEW - Fixed an issue that was preventing the "___ of Deadly ___" spell critical multiplier enhancements from working as intended.
• Lowered the action point spent prerequisite for Human Adaptability to be in line with other level 5 enhancements.
• We're adding a new Enhancement: Human Greater Adaptability. Available at level 13, requires 44 action points spent and Human Adaptability (any). Grants a +1 bonus to a second attribute of your choice.

Items

• Arcane Lore (a universal spell critical item effect) will now be applied to spells with odd types of damage like Cometfall.
• Glyph of Warding scrolls have been corrected to have appropriate statistics for a Level 3 spell scroll. It was set to Level 1.
• The following weapon effects will no longer be applied to monsters unless the damage of the attack penetrates the monster's Damage Reduction for at least one point of damage.
  • Slicing
  • Wounding
  • Maladroit
  • Weakening
  • Weighted (Stun Chance)
  • Tendon Slice
• Due to the changes in the Hamstring and Sap feat several weapon treasure effects have been changed.
  
  • All weapons with Tendon Slice treasure effects will now have a small chance of Hamstringing their target each time they do damage. This replaces the previous effect that gave a DC bonus to the Hamstring feat.
  • All weapons with Weighted treasure effects will now have a small chance of Stunning their target each time they do damage. This replaces the previous effect that gave a DC bonus to the Sap feat. The bonus DC to the Stunning Blow feat is still in effect.
• NEW - The "of Deception" weapon effect has received an upgrade. It now gives a +3 bonus to Bluff skill but more importantly, targets struck by an "of Deception" weapon now have a chance to be disoriented for a few seconds. While this effect lasts the monster is vulnerable to sneak attacks, assuming it does not have any other immunities.
• There is now a small chance to find randomly generated thrown returning weapons in treasure
• All existing Mauls and all Mauls created in the future will have a x3 critical hit multiplier.
• The Torc of Prince Raiymude will now grant you spell points only when an attack actually damages you; it will do nothing if an attack is reduced to zero by your DR.
• When equipped with a shield with 0 ACP, the attack bonus shown in your inventory display will now be properly updated (this was just a visual bug, you have always been getting the correct bonus when attacking).
• Ivory Scorpion collectables now look like Ivory Scorpions.
• Dragon shards now show up in the trade window. They could always be traded, but because they didn't show up in the trade window, it could be confusing.
• Throwing Hammers have been added to the Auction House.

NPCs

• NEW - The ground beneath Spaulder Nine-Band has been fortified so he no longer slides down the hill when he gets tired.
• NEW - Maxon the Dreamwalker no longer asks you for crystals, but more appropriately asks for ritualistic paraphernalia.

PVP

• Players who have been bluffed in PvP will no longer see a placeholder icon for their bluffed state.
• It was intermittently possible to see your foes location on your map when in a PvP arena. This should no longer happen.
• The Match Statistics and Arena Queue UI's will no longer appear when using the HideUI key.

Quests

• Chaos Orbs now have more effects.
• NEW - If you enter a private landscape, then enter a dungeon from that landscape, then use the exit waypoint to return to the private landscape, and then recall you will now be correctly placed at the exit location of the private landscape as opposed to the harbor.
• NEW - Fixed several traps in the world that weren't scaling properly on the "hard" and "elite" versions.
• NEW - Black Anvil Mines
  • The Questgiver will no longer teleport you directly into the mines. Instead, he now tells you that the mines are located off of the Kundarak Ward.
• NEW - Depths of Discord
  
  • The monsters in the hallway should no longer respawn.
    
• NEW - Fire Caves
  
  • We have made a change so that both of the rest shrines aren't behind locked doors.
    
• NEW - Keeper's Sanctuary
  • Archin Muriose's quest chalice will work properly now.
• NEW - Ruined Halls
  • The objective to "Slay Agent Westbrook" will now be completed even if he is killed from range.
• NEW - Tangleroot Gorge
  • "Seeking Chief Ungurz" is no longer repeatable.
• Tempest Spine
  • Sor'jek Incanni of Tempest's Spine has found his strength and toughness again. His hit points have been increased dramatically, and he is now more of a challenge to defeat. He has regained his full spell casting abilities, and the Control Weather effect he creates has also been significantly upgraded. You will also find that his treasure has been upgraded accordingly.
    
• NEW - Troglodyte Clutch
  
  • Fixed a problem where the crates weren't properly registering damage from spells, thus preventing the completion of the quest in certain circumstances.
    
• NEW - Tomb of the Astrologer
  • Fixed a location where Kourush would not drop the "Seal of the Heavens".
• NEW - The Necropolis
  • Loremistress Jinna will now explicitly tell you if repeating the Bloody Crypt will reset the entire arc for you or not.
    
  • Fixed the DM text in several quests to help clarify who is speaking.
    
• NEW - Waterworks
  • Clan Gnashtooth Prison
    
    • Made a change to help prevent dead players from getting trapped in the Bloodletter's room.
      

In Development

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

Items

• When you loot chests you can now change who the loot is reserved for to anyone currently in your party. The new menu contains data on player's names and primary class, so if you see the perfect dagger for a rogue, there's no confusion about who the rogue in the party is. Please note: items which are bind on equip cannot have their reservation changed.
• Items can now be designated as "exclusive." This means that you can only have one of an exclusive item in your backpack or equipped at a time. You can still place multiple exclusive items in your bank, mail, trade, and sell exclusive items (as long as they are not bound). Exclusive item A will have no effect on how many copies of Exclusive item B you can own. We have no plans to retroactively add this property to current items other than the Ring of Spell Storing.