Weekly Development Activities
October 2, 2006
<!--
if (!document.phpAds_used) document.phpAds_used = ',';
phpAds_random = new String (Math.random()); phpAds_random = phpAds_random.substring(2,11);
document.write ("<" + "script language='JavaScript' type='text/javascript' src='");
document.write ("http://ads.tentonhammer.com/adjs.php?n=" + phpAds_random);
document.write ("&what=zone:81");
document.write ("&exclude=" + document.phpAds_used);
if (document.referrer)
document.write ("&referer=" + escape(document.referrer));
document.write ("'><" + "/script>");
//-->
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 Module 3.
General
NEW - You will now slowly regenerate Hit
Points and Spell Points while walking around the city and not just in
taverns.
NEW - A number of new emotes have been
added to the game:
/beckon
/hug
/flex
/groan
/grovel
/kiss
/no
/poke
/sigh
/taunt
/yes
/cheer2
/dance2
The
Silver Flame has recognized that the brothers stationed in Taverns have
been casting an inferior version of Restoration. From now on, the spell
cast in taverns will remove 1 negative level in addition to all the
other Restoration effects.
NEW -
Raid parties for the Dragon or the Warforged Titan will now have the
option of setting the raid loot shards to go to a random member of the
party rather than to the leader. The leader can switch the shard
designation by right clicking on the party health-bars (in the same
place he/she clicked for "convert-to-raid"). All members of the party
will be notified in party chat when this happens, and later arrivals
will be notified when they join the party. Once the party has been
switched to "random loot", it cannot be switched back. Shards will be
randomly assigned to any member of the party who is alive and still in
the dungeon as soon as someone attempts to pick up the shard.
Fixed a bug which prevented the player's encumbrance from being
updated when sending an item through the mail.
Players will no longer get stuck while dismounting from ladders.
We
are pleased to announce the addition of the /showhelmet <on |
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.
When you successfully swap a spell, you will now get an alert
telling you that it worked.
Poison dart and poison grenade traps will now actually poison you
instead of doing poison hp damage.
Lava Cam! When your camera is in lava, it now looks more like
it's in lava, as opposed to water.
Made
some small tweaks to our avatar animations. For example, human female's
wrists won't twist in the dual weapon combo attack, dwarven arms won't
over-extend when they use an axe to cleave, etc.
Performance
The landscape renderer has been overhauled to provide better
performance (especially load times). In addition, the new landscape
engine enables huge draw distances that were not possible before.
The overall frame rate has been improved and hitching' reduced.
Avatars
and monsters are now a bit brighter than other objects (the intensity
depends upon the environment and lighting conditions).
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).
UI Improvements
The text on the XP bar has been clarified to make it more
obvious that you have not lost the XP you were accruing toward your
bonus AP when you die and get an XP debt while you are working toward
bonus action points.
Mail
The "New Mail" icon will now appear on the Focus Orb even if
it is minimized.
NEW - The "New Mail" icon will now
vanish from the Focus Orb when the last new letter in your mailbox has
been opened.
NEW - It is no longer possible to
put too much text into the Compose Mail' "To," "Subject," and "Message"
fields.
NEW
- It is no longer possible to compose new mail while your mailbox is
full. The Mail Box is considered full when it has fifty or more letters
inside of it.
The "To" and "Subject" line of the Compose Mail UI no longer
accept carriage returns.
NEW - In an effort to help clear up some
confusion Ranks will now start at 1 instead of 0.
NEW - ALT-Z will now hide/show the main
UI.
NEW - You will now see the dice rolls
for dispelling.
NEW
- When using something other than the mouse to move the mouse cursor
(for example, an Xbox 360 controller), the mouse cursor will not be
allowed to move outside the game window.
Monsters
NEW - Monsters can no longer remain
stealthed/invisible when they are casting harmful spells on you.
NEW
- Adjusted some monster sneak attacks to function properly some were
not being blocked by fortification, while others were not triggering in
situation where they should have (for example, with a blinded target).
NEW - Monsters will now deal properly
when hit with multiple behavior states (for example, mesmerized while
dancing).
NEW
- Liches can no longer be affected by command undead, halt undead, the
undead fear portion of the chill touch spell, or control undead (not in
game yet).
NEW - Mephits now fly faster.
NEW - Most named troglodytes have been
given more hp on the hard and elite settings.
Spiders
Some mid- and high-level (mostly CR 7 and up) spiders have
new stronger poisons.
Most
spiders on the hard and elite settings have had their attack damage
reduced significantly, particularly those on the elite setting.
Widow type spiders will once again shoot functional webs.
The mind flayer and vampire's dominate abilities no longer dispel
protection from evil.
Some ogres have been eating their veggies and will be able to see
and hear better than they could before.
Several
bow wielding enemies will now shoot various energy arrows like flaming
arrows or cold arrows. These will do the typical piercing damage (1d6
and up) in addition to various amounts of energy damage.
Several
resourceful enemies have begun using various alchemical substances in
battle. In most cases, these will affect players as energy damage over
time.
Elemental Empathy will work properly on Earth Elementals that
have used their Earthgrab ability.
More
powerful versions of Mummy Rot are now labeled accordingly: Pernicious
Mummy Rot is more dangerous than regular Mummy Rot, and Virulent Mummy
Rot is even more lethal.
Female humanoid villains will no longer charge into melee range
if armed with spells or bows.
We
are fixing an issue with the death animations of Arcane Skeletons. They
will no longer "eat collectables" they should be creating.
Combat
All enemy trips and knockdowns now have dual saves (an initial
save and a secondary save). Most give you an ability modifier check for
the initial save to determine whether or not you fall. This is usually
your Strength or Dexterity modifier, whichever is greater on your
character. Some knockdowns like grease give a reflex save as the
initial save. Once you fall down, your secondary save checks will occur
every two seconds and are versus your balance skill to determine when
you stand back up.
NEW -
Warforged who take the fighter's armor mastery enhancements will now
see it affect the max dex bonus from their armored body feat.
NEW - Smiting weapons and other death
effects now give better combat feedback in your chat box.
NEW - Boss monsters will now give better
feedback on spells that they are immune to.
Spells
Spell Changes
NEW - The valid arc for casting spells
on a target has been increased from a forward 90 degree arc to a
forward 120 degree arc.
Resist
Energy is now available for clerics, paladins, rangers, and wizards.
Protection from Energy is now available to Rangers, Wizards, and
Clerics. This change allows these classes to cast Protection From
Energy and Resist Energy the same way a sorcerer can, by memorizing a
single spell and then choosing which damage type to ward against. The
days of memorizing several Resist Energy: (Element) are no more!
Protection
from Evil has been fixed to work correctly. It no longer protects
against *all* charms and compulsions (including Otto's, command, hold
monster/person, etc). Rather, it only protects against charms and
compulsions that give ongoing mental control, such as the vampire's
dominate ability. Also, as per D&D rules, it no longer protects
against mental control from evil creatures, but ALL mental control,
regardless of the target's alignment.
Phantasmal killer is now a fear effect.
NEW - Players will now be immune to
charm and suggestion spells. Players will no longer be immune to
command spells.
Holy smite will now damage spiders.
The
Teleport spell no longer has a Somatic casting component so players
will not suffer an arcane spell failure chance for Teleport while
wearing armor.
NEW - The Dispel
Magic spell (for bards, clerics, paladins, sorcerers, and wizards) no
longer requires a material component to cast (as per P&P rules).
Niac's cold ray now uses the proper ray cast animation.
NEW - Mind Blast now affects all enemies
within the area of effect.
NEW
- The flame arrow spell now allows the caster to choose what type of
ammo he/she would like to add the "flame" property to. Choices include
Arrows, Bolts, Throwing Daggers, Throwing Axes, Darts, and Shuriken.
Each requires 1 base unmodified type of that ammo (so Flame Shuriken
requires 1 plain shuriken) and produces a stack of 50. All players and
items that can cast flame arrow will now cast the "new" version.
NEW
- Stoneskin and Protection from Energy spells now work as per PHB -
they have a total amount of damage that they protect you from, after
which they will vanish.
NEW - When blind, you will no longer see
the names floating above the head of named friends/foes.
NEW - Casting/Cooldown
Slightly reduced the cooldown timer of all level 5 spells.
Significantly sped up the casting time of Command to be in
line with other spells of that level.
Significantly sped up the casting time of Flame Strike.
Significantly sped up the casting time of the Spell
Resistance spell to be in line with other spells of that level.
Significantly sped up the cast time of the sorcerer's
Dimension Door spell to be in line with other spells of that level.
Significantly increased the cooldown timer of the sorcerer's
Suggestion spell to be in line with other Suggestion spells.
Made
several minor tweaks to casting times and cooldown timers of other
spells to bring them in line with similar spells of the same level.
NEW - The visual for the Grease spell
now matches more closely the area of effect.
You will now get chat feedback in the combat window when you hit
someone with a non-damaging spell (like fear or slow).
Metamagic Fixes
NEW - Characters using the Quicken feat
will find their spellcasting greatly improved.
Resistance, Restoration, Raise Dead and See Invisibility spells
can now be used with the Eschew Materials feat.
NEW - The spell point cost of using your
Eschew Materials metamagic feat has been reduced.
Find
Traps, Ice Storm, Magic Missile, Scorching Ray and Searing Light no
longer consume additional spellpoints while the Heighten Spell feat is
active.
Holy Smite and Niac's Cold Ray can now be used with the Heighten
Spell feat.
Dismissal no longer consumes extra spell points while the
Maximize or Empower spell feats are active.
Feeblemind and Waves of Fatigue no longer consume extra spell
points while the Extend Spell feat is active.
Ray of Exhaustion can now be used with the Heighten spell feat.
Sleet Storm no longer consumes addition spell points while the
Heighten spell feat is active.
Wall of Fire
No longer consumes additional spellpoints while the Heighten
spell feat is active.
Wall of Fire can now be used with the Extend Spell feat.
Shocking grasp can now be affected by the Heighten Spell
metamagic feat.
Solid Fog and Grease no longer consume additional spellpoints
when under the effects of the Heighten Spell metamagic feat.
Melf's Acid Arrow no longer consumes additional spellpoints while
the heighten spell feat is active.
Spell Description Updates
(these are just text changes, not changes to spell functionality)
Spell descriptions now use color for greater readability!
Player
spells will now state in their descriptions if the spell has a saving
throw to resist, and if so, the results of a successful save.
Ray
of Enfeeblement description fixed, it had been indicating an extraneous
+1 STR damage that it did not do, and was missing max caster level
information.
Hold spells have been updated to state that they have a save
interval.
Player spells that have a max Hit Dice cap should now state this
in their description.
Melf's Acid Arrow description has been updated to list the
correct interval.
Wall of Fire description now been updated to include damage
amounts.
NEW - Scorching ray description now
includes information about additional rays and their levels.
Skills & Abilities
The magnitude of the bonus provided by Action Boost: Attack and
Action Boost: Skills have been reduced at the higher level
enhancements.
Bards can now activate their singing
abilities while moving! The activation time on their singing abilities
has been reduced significantly as well. An animation glitch has also
been fixed!
NEW - Fixed a bug
with some AOE abilities and spells. Formerly, if you had a dead monster
targeted, Turn Undead would fail. Now, it will work, but will be
centered on you since your selected target is dead. The same is true of
other feats, skills (Intimidate, etc.), and spells (Burning Hands,
etc.), for which the default behavior on an invalid target should be
"happen, centered on me", or "happen, aiming directly forward".
The
description for the Paladin's Lay on Hands ability has been corrected
to better describe the amount of healing/damage that the ability does.
Items
NEW - There is a new weapon effect
"Vicious". This effect causes the weapon to do an additional 2d6 of
damage to the target, but also does 1d6 of damage to the wielder.
NEW
- The following bane weapons will now have the appropriate attack
bonus. At the moment there is not a retroactive fix for older copies of
the weapons who do not have the bonus but we are working on one.
Kelmar's Justice
Sword of the Giant Slave-Masters
Giant Stalker's Knife
Spider Spike
Spiked Mace of the Elements
NEW - Crests will now sparkle to make
them easier to see.
PVP
NEW - Sneak attack works as follows:
If the target player is helpless, sneak attack applies.
If the target player is blinded, sneak attack applies.
If the target player is asleep, sneak attack applies.
If the target player is stunned, sneak attack applies.
If the target player is bluffed, sneak attack applies.
If the target player is dazed, sneak attack applies.
If the target player is flanked, sneak attack applies.
Quests
NEW - Tempest Spine
The "Bridge to the Inevitable" gate trap will now open after 3
minutes to prevent parties from getting stuck should someone run ahead,
trigger the trap, and then die.
To discuss the weekly development activities visit the official
target="_blank" href="http://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47816">DDO
Forums