The Dragon's Vault
Release Notes Module 1
<!--
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>");
//-->
This
update contains the first content update to DDO, the Dragon's Vault
Module! Can you gain access to the impenetrable Vault of Night?
Fight in the notorious Tharashk Arena, defeating all other
combatants to survive.
Explore the most dangerous prison of all that of a mind locked
in torment, in The Prison of the Mind.
Discover the hideous secret that has ruined the Haywire Foundry.
Delve into the subterranean depths of the Jungles of Khyber.
After
you've conquered all four of those dungeons, the most challenging and
compelling dungeon experience of all awaits you the Vault of Night,
as you face the full array of Kundarak magic and tricks meant to keep
you out
or kill you.
If you somehow manage to defeat the Vault of Night, you can earn
your rich rewards
there remains just one last obstacle
In addition to the Dragon's Vault chain of quests, there is even more
great content to explore!
Fight against the first vampire boss in DDO
you'll love this
challenge.
Stop a planar invasion in The Xorian Cipher
Explore the immense demesne of the Arzag-Khor
can you acquire the
Tear of Dhakaan?
Stop the nefarious plans of the Grave Robber
Can you uncover all the secrets of Stromvauld's Mine?
Will you aid the Bounty Hunter and bring down an infamous
assassin?
And more!
We've
opened the gates to Kobold Island: a fun and replayable landscape
experience for new players still getting a feel for what their
characters can do in combat.
Changes and fixes to the game include:
Founders
commemoration! Check the fountain in Aspirants square to view the
earliest guilds to arrive in Stormreach and explore the dangers of
Xen'drik!
Weapon Sets shortcuts are now in! You can now set up
a single item shortcut to point to both a main weapon and off-hand
item. So, for example, you can now equip two daggers, or a sword and a
shield all with one shortcut.
Drag two different items into
the weapon sets panel in your inventory panel to create a single
shortcut for two items. Now use that shortcut in your shortcut bar to
equip the two items.
Collectibles Most
collectible descriptions now tell you not only which collector wants
that item, but also how many copies of that item they desire (i.e.
Goldscuttle desires at least 3 Prayer Beads.")
When you
attempt to delete a character, you will now get a confirmation dialog
that asks you to type in the character's first name before it will
allow you to delete the character. This should help prevent accidental
deletion of your favorite characters.
Potion and Scroll icons
all now have a mini-spell icon in their upper left corner (just like
wands) to help identify what spell the item casts. Say goodbye to the
I have ten different potions and all of them are blue! problem.
Performance
Players should no longer receive falling damage when they are
simply walking along minding their own business.
The number of people allowed in each tavern instance has been
lowered to help performance within taverns.
We
have implemented another batch of changes that should help players who
are experiencing rubberbanding and glued to spot issues.
A
new tab has been added to the Options Panel, the "Troubleshoot" tab,
which contains several new options to help tweak game performance.
These options should help players who are trying to improve their
dialup experience or players whose video cards are overheating.
The trouble shoot UI adds the connection speed setting
instead of needing to set it in the userpreferences.ini
It additionally adds two methods of slowing down graphics for
systems having graphics issues
A number of graphics related crashes have been resolved.
Update to timing code to better handle Dual Core, HT and dynamic
overclocking setups.
Network latency now properly measures round trip times, instead
of one way.
We
have implemented another batch of changes that should help with dialup
performance. If you are a dial-up user, we would appreciate your
feedback on connectivity performance after the update.
UI Improvements
The /roll command now simulates dice-rolling and broadcasts
results to the Party.
The shop UI now plays a sound when buying or selling an item.
Chat improvements
The enter key will now correctly activate the chat text entry
field.
There is a new (and louder) sound when you receive a tell.
Setting
your outgoing message type to "guild" will no longer generate the error
"no such command." You will also now be able to correctly chat with
your guild while on the guild chat tab.
Players should now connect to guild chat more reliably when
logging into the game.
/General chat channel no longer appends an 1' to the end of
the user's name.
Friends List improvements
You now receive a message in chat when one of your friends
goes online or offline.
Friends Lists are now specific to a character, not an account.
An
Invite Button has been added to the Friends UI. Simply open your
Friends list, target the person you want to party with, and click
Invite.
The Guild list now properly updates members' online status.
Pawn shops will now be marked on the map with a distinctive
marker to make locating them easier.
The mapnotes for Phiarlan, Kundarak, and Deneith have been
updated for greater accuracy.
You will now correctly see your own Voice Chat status icon in the
party display.
/squelch command is no longer case sensitive.
The Mic test will now automatically shut off if you close the
window.
Your
avatar will now face the correct direction upon zone entry after
teleporting while in mouselook mode. The days of zoning in and finding
yourself facing some crazy direction are over.
Magical versions of Light Repeating crossbow and Shuriken now
have the correct blue magic background for their icons.
Battle Axes and Falchions now have the correct icons.
If a player is affected by Slicing Blow they will now see the
correct alert icon.
Corrected the icon for the Fire Elemental's Burning Touch DoT.
Examination Issues
Many
spells should now have their damage ranges and bonus types displayed
when examined. This is part of an ongoing effort on our part to provide
more detailed spell descriptions.
Weapons, Shields, and Armor now display their proficiency
requirement when examined.
The descriptions of many items have been improved.
Certain Immunities (for example elemental damage immunities) now
show up on your character sheet under Resistances.
Thrown Weapon Damage bonuses on character sheet should now
display properly.
Wands now display durability when examined.
Shields now display their attack penalty if they have one.
Several typos have been corrected in spell descriptions.
Combat
Improved
Feint now works as an instant AOE bluff, performing bluff checks to all
nearby targets. Bluffed targets are open to sneak attack attempts.
Please note that the attack animation for Improved Feint is misleading
and will be fixed in an upcoming patch.
Sneak attack bonuses no
longer apply to glancing blows since a sneak attack is intended to be a
targeted attack and should not apply to collateral damage.
You
can now shield bash if you have a shield and thrown weapon equipped,
instead of queuing up a thrown attack for when you release the block
button.
Some improvements have been made to repeating crossbows.
Quest Mechanics
Some
very high-level quests now have a reset timer (initially this is just
the Vault of Night sequence). The quest reset timer will activate once
the quest sequence is completed. You cannot replay the quest sequence
until the timer finishes.
The timer is indicated in your quest journal.
You can use the /quest command to view all active quest reset
timers.
The Plane of Night has a new loot mechanic for dividing treasure
from the dragon. For full details please read
href="http://%E2%80%9Dttp://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21903%E2%80%9D"
target="_blank">this thread
A few different bugs with Encounter XP have been fixed
Higher level encounters are now worth more XP than lower
level encounters.
Certain areas had a bug where their encounters were worth
zero XP. This has now been fixed.
If
you are 5 levels or more below the max level of someone in your Party,
you will see reduced XP, culminating in potentially zero xp.
Character files now automatically save after completing a quest
and earning XP, or after receiving a quest reward.
Completing
an adventure while at the XP cap will no longer count towards that
adventure's repetition count (even if you are carrying a death penalty).
Quests
Completing
many of the longer quest sequences now presents you with a unique
reward selection panel where you can choose from a list of special
items. Previously only the Waterworks had this type of reward system.
Several adventure areas have had their treasure tables adjusted
to be more in-line with their level of difficulty.
Small changes have been made throughout the world to help prevent
pathing issues.
Numerous broken traps and control boxes have been fixed.
Fixed several false danger alerts (warning of traps that were not
there etc.).
Some bugs have been fixed that were preventing certain quests
from being completed.
Many quests have had a revamp of some sort. More details will be
posted tomorrow with the update.
Character Abilities & Spells
We
have made improvements to many of the spell effects. Also, many
player-cast spells now contain inherent lighting (cast a fireball and
you will see the difference).
Flaming Sphere and Lightning bolt
have been changed so that they do more damage. Previously, if monsters
were standing in a line the spell would hit the monster at the head of
the line and then stop. Now the spells will travel down the whole line
of monsters with a chance to do damage to any monster it hits.
Flesh
to Stone is now permanent but, like Hold Person, now grants periodic
saving throws to end the effect. Break Enchantment will still remove
this status effect. Characters with high Fortitude saving throws will
find the average duration lower than before. Characters with low
Fortitude saving throws may hope for some good rolls.
All
undead will now properly react to Turn Undead. Turned undead will now
properly flee in terror from the cleric or paladin that turns them
rather than cower, rebuked.
When resting, Warforged should now heal at least one point of
ability damage, regardless of their repair score.
The Improved Fortification feat now works correctly.
Mithral Fluidity now works correctly.
We
fixed a bug with Fear where it would hit no target if no target was
selected. It now correctly has a cone radius for its effect, even with
no target selected.
Warforged racial paralysis resistance now correctly applies to
ghoul and ghast resistance.
Max range of Feather Fall and Mass Cure spells now is consistent
with other AoEs.
Flame Arrow spell will now summon 50 arrows.
Shaken state no longer prevents spells/skills/feats from being
used.
Undead are now immune to Blind.
Spell Resistance no longer affects your susceptibility to Web.
Feeblemind now prevents spellcasting.
If
you're immune to an effect due to racial or feat immunities, you will
no longer see an irrelevant saving throw roll, but instead just get the
immune feedback immediately.
You now get a save vs. Mindfog.
Blindness spell is no longer affected by the Extend Metamagic
feat.
Neutralize Poison's immunity effect duration has been reduced to
1 min/level to bring it in line with other immunity effects.
Hand
Axes have been added to Dwarven Enhancements involving axes (Axe Attack
and Axe Damage). This is not noted in the tooltips for these
enhancements.
Monsters
Many monsters will now heal and buff themselves and their friends
more effectively.
Monsters
should now react more intelligently to inanimate obstacles that are
preventing them from moving where they desire, with a greatly increased
chance of being able to navigate around objects that may have been
impassable barriers to them before. We have also improved monster
targeting behavior in doorways and other bottlenecks, as well as their
behavior landscape and dungeon areas.
Charmed monsters should attack enemy creatures more reliably.
Monsters should no longer clump up into a mob when encountered in
large numbers.
Kobold
Shamans no longer cast Bestow Curse when playing dungeons on Hard
difficulty level. However you should be wary of their replacement spell
- you might actually prefer Bestow Curse.
The Beholder's Scorching Ray eyebeam now functions properly.
The
antimagic cone emitted by beholders now properly strips magical effects
from those caught in its front arc and prevents spellcasting.
All elementals are now immune to Vorpal effects.
All vermin are now vulnerable to Vorpal effects.
Previously,
there were several instances in the game where using Command Undead on
specific undead targets would render the quest uncompletable. These
powerful undead are now immune to Command Undead.
Slimes unable
to reach a target will no longer stand in place waiting to die. They
will now instinctively retreat if peppered by arrows from an
unreachable location.
Golems and animals should no longer occasionally disappear when
attempting to return to their home locations.
The Aura of Fear of a Thaarak Hound will no longer scare off
creatures that are non-hostile to the Hound.
Spectres that have not entered the world will not prevent players
from moving through their ghostly selves.
The
Guardian of Shan-To-Kor will now enter melee combat more often rather
than staying at range, and should no longer occasionally stand around
doing nothing.
The third scorpion in the Warders defense should now spawn
correctly.
Zombies should now disappear properly if they explode.
Items
When you loot an item from a chest, a message is sent to everyone
in the Party.
Banishing effects will now only work on critical hits.
When
picking up a Bind on Acquire item that is not reserved (for example, in
a treasure chest from which only 1 pull for the Party is possible),
there is a confirmation dialogue box opened. Currently this only
applies to the Plane of Night.
Wands found in treasure chests
now start with a random number of charges instead of fixed number of
charges. This change does not affect wands purchased from vendors.
Level 4 Bard components have been added to Arcane Reagent vendors
in Kundarak and Jorasco.
Named docents have had their durability increased.
Previously
items could be generated from chests that had both a temporary damage
amplification and an inherent spell effect. This has been corrected and
all items should now have only one effect or the other.
Ghost Touch bows now successfully impart their magic to the
missiles they fire.
Magical
Shields no longer add their enhancement bonus to attack and damage
rolls for the shield, they only apply to your AC bonus per D&D
rules.
Tower Shields now correctly cap your max dex bonus.
Scarabs of Absorption and Spell Resistance items can no longer
affect your own spells.
Max stack size for throwing weapons is now 50. Throwing weapons
loot will still be found in stacks of 20.
Bolts of X Bane costs have been reduced to be in line with
Arrows of X Bane.
Three
new weapon effects added to treasure generation system True Law, True
Chaos, and Pure Good. Each of these effects gives the weapon an
additional 1d6 damage versus non-aligned targets, and requires the
wielder to have that alignment. UMD skill of 20 to bypass the alignment
requirements.
Hold Person scrolls can now correctly be scribed by Wizards.
The Chill Shard Weapon will now function properly.
NPCs
Lowest level pawnbrokers have been moved to the Marketplace.
Merchant names are now visible in the Marketplace tent.
Pawnbrokers have also had their dialogue tweaked to be slightly
more useful.
The Harbor weapons vendors now carry Exotic weapons.
Guard Healfdene will now always allow players to return to the
Newbie Harbor.
Steppy
the Barkeep in Delver's Canteen, Ruins of Threnal will now repair all
types of equipment. Of course, he has to charge a little more due to
the difficulty of getting parts out in the wilderness.
Delera will no longer say "The girl was to be spared!" after all
her "Return to Delera's Tomb" conversations.
Hargo
Kimmare will no longer offer to sell you information twice. Instead he
will proceed with his story arc if you have completed the first part of
his quest.
Miscellaneous
Chests will no longer sparkle after they're opened up.
Control boxes for traps will now highlight with the normal
selection FX when selected.
You can no longer jump much higher that normal while pushing up
against nearly vertical walls.
Several new light sources have been added throughout the world.
If
you log out while in a dungeon you will now find yourself outside that
dungeon when you log back in, unless you log back in before the
instance has reset. If you camped in a dungeon the last time you played
before this update, the first time you log in your character will
appear in the harbor.
Graphics performance while swimming has been improved.
Dead players will no longer pop glass spider eggs while they're a
ghost.
Character generation will now look correct in widescreen mode.
Fixed several collection points that were incorrectly set to
reward only one player.
Fixed many places in the world where players were able to get
stuck.
Clicking on the Fountain in Aspirant's Square will no longer
bring up the Stats Portal UI window.