Weekly Development Activities

August 7, 2006

Check out the latest updates to the "Weekly Development Activities."
The goal for this feature is to give solid expectations on what you can

expect to see in future updates.



In QA

These items are in QA and should be a part of the next scheduled update.



Performance

• We are making some changes to the Twilight Forge to improve
  performance.

General

• The House Kundarak banking system will be opening a new branch in
  the harbor inside the Harbormaster's House.
• Loot messages from other players will be tagged as loot messages
  and can be filtered out.
• NEW - The spell exchange and energy
  spell selector dialogs will behave correctly when you dismiss them
  using the escape button.
• Players will no longer get stuck while dismounting from ladders.

Monsters

• NEW – Prolonged
  exposure to the Plane of Night has had negative effects on Velah and
  has stripped her of some of her former epic powers. Note that to
  compensate she has grown a bit smarter, and many of the old strategies
  used may not work quite so well. Experimentation, quick thinking, and
  valor will surely lead heroes to find new ways to defeat her.
  • Velah's spellcasting AI and line of sight recognition will be
    improved.
  • Her attacks will no longer be flagged as unblockable.
  • The average damage of her physical attacks will be reduced.
    The critical hit ranges on various attacks will be modified.
  • Her tail knockdown attack will use the same mechanics as
    other Knockdown effects.
  • Wing Buffet will be considered a physical attack rather than
    a spell. The knockback effect will have a reflex save.
  • Velah's
    Dragon Breath will no longer treated as a physical attack. It will be
    entirely fire damage with a single reflex save, and can no longer crit
    or miss.
  • Dispelling Breath will remove half as many magical effects as
    before.
  • Her Telekinesis ability will have a will save.
  • All spells cast by Velah will properly use her Charisma to
    determine DC's.
  • Fireballs spit by Velah will be entirely fire damage and
    scale properly on Hard and Elite.
  • Velah herself will properly scale in difficulty on Hard and
    Elite.
  • For more information on the origin of these changes, please
    read target="_blank">this thread.
• Wildmen will apply the feeblemind effect less often, generally on
  critical hits and/or their special leap attack.
• The
  effects caused by the warforged quori humanoids in the WFT area will no
  longer produce FX. Previously this on-damage effect could slow down
  performance due to the spam of visualized effects.
• Melee
  oriented Troglodytes will move closer to their targets - they should no
  longer attempt to make melee attacks from out of range.

Combat

• The critical threat range will no longer be doubled on the 4th
  swing in a combo.
• The feeblemind bestowed by wildmen will be curable by
  restoration.

Items

• Vorpal weapons will behead monsters as per the
  Players Handbook - you must roll a natural 20 and confirm a crit to
  vorpal your target.
• Niac's Cold Ray and Knock scrolls will be available at Lorna
  Wyrmtouched, Arcane Scroll Vendor in the marketplace tent.
• Items
  that cast Featherfall are getting an upgrade in usability. These items
  will be fast-casting and use a self-only version of Featherfall.
• The
  "of Destruction" weapon effect is a much weaker effect than intended.
  To make the effect worthy of its cost, "of Destruction" will reduce the
  target's AC by 4 the first time it hits. There is no saving throw for
  this effect.
• We are changing the names for Seeker +1, Seeker
  +2, Seeker +3 etc. items. These effects are being renamed to be
  consistent with other effect naming conventions - they will be named to
  match the bonus they give (Seeker +2, Seeker+4, Seeker +6 etc.)
• Laina the Excoriated will close her shop window properly.
• The
  Freedom of Movement effect on the Kundarak Delving Boots will ward the
  movement effects of Storm Giant weather control. It will no longer ward
  the Beholder's petrify eye beam or the Mummy's Despair ability.

Spells

• Hazadill is having such fun with Otto's Sphere of
  Dancing that he doesn't realize that he is breaking the rules of the
  universe and casting area-of-effect Otto's IRRESISTIBLE dance rather
  than area-of-effect Otto's RESISTIBLE dance. This spell will be fixed
  so that Hazadill as well as other NPC casters will no longer cast the
  irresistible sphere of dancing, but the correct version with a saving
  throw.
• We are fixing a long-standing issue with dispel effects
  that causes dispels from the Dispel Magic spell to be much harder than
  they should normally be.

Quests

• Gnarl's Tomb
  • Old Gnarl's ghost will open
    his door after a fight if he dispatches any would-be thieves. This will
    allow parties to attempt him again without resetting the dungeon.
• Restless Isles
  • The Runetusk Commander will no longer speak to you after he
    dies.
  • Several encounters are displaying their DM text repeatedly.
    This will be fixed.

Under Development

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



Performance

• Overall bandwidth of the game will be reduced
  another 1-3%, and certain problematic dungeons and laggy areas will be
  significantly improved by 20-50% (when your client gets flooded with
  information about objects in your local area).

General

• We are pleased to announce the addition of the /showhelmet |="" off=""> command which can be used to hide your helmet graphic.
• We
  are improving the combat/damage feedback mechanism. This will not only
  eliminate "false" hits where the target would flinch but no attack roll
  would take place, but also give better feedback as to the strength of
  the hit.

Monsters

• Widow type spiders will once again shoot functional webs.
• Elemental Empathy will work properly on Earth Elementals that
  have used their Earthgrab ability.
• We
  are fixing an issue with the death animations of Arcane Skeletons. They
  will no longer "eat collectables" they should be creating.

Items

• We are also working on exempting Kundarak Delving Boots from the
  movement restrictions of Sleetstorm and IceStorm.

Spells

• Please disregard the previous entry regarding the
  Fragment of the Silver Flame. Protection from Evil is being worked on
  to bring it in line with D&D rules.

To discuss the weekly development activities visit the official target="_blank" href="http://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47816">DDO
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