DDO Update

June 14, 2006

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™:
Stormreach™ delivers the most exciting group-focused experiences
available in online gaming today.

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Up till now the city has held dangers
that are to difficult for a single player to overcome. An all new solo
setting is being introduced to help DDO players navigate through
content on their own, allowing them the time and space to learn about
their characters, try strategies and face monsters for the first time
on their own. Players will be able to play at their own pace without
having to worry about finding others to group with. For the full
article on the new solo play features click href="http://www.ddo.com/index.php?page_id=20&pagebuilder%5Bmodule%5D=article&pagebuilder%5Bdisplay_item%5D=427">here.



Experience Table Adjustment



In conjunction with the new solo options for the Harbor, we have made
some adjustments to the experience required to get from level 1-3.
Advancing to level 2 will now require 5,000 experience points instead
of 10,000, and advancing to level 3 will require 20,000 total
experience points instead of 30,000, allowing you to visit the trainers
even earlier.



As a result of this sliding experience, the experience point
requirements for level 3-10 will be 10,000 points lower. The amount of
experience required to move from level 3 to level 10 will remain the
same, but will require less total experience, as a result of the
changes made at levels 1 and 2. To balance this out for existing
characters, all characters who are currently level 3 and above will see
a one-time, 10,000 point, experience shift closer to their next level.
Please note: this is NOT a gift of 10,000 xp, merely a shift however
depending on your current xp total this may grant you a new level or
rank.



Performance

We have fixed a graphics memory leak that caused performance to
severely degrade over time, eventually causing instability or crashes.
This should also help alleviate "hitching." In a continued effort to help our dial-up players we made some
further reductions to bandwidth usage. All players should see some
benefit from this reduction. We fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to crash while
teleporting.

UI

You can now use punctuation in your Guild Message of the Day!!!!!
Use all the commas, exclamation points, and questions marks you
like!!!!!!!!! We changed the text of the in-game help request for "Stuck" to
reflect the best procedure to follow if you get stuck somewhere
in-game. Previously the instructions directed players to log out of the
game, which is not the best course of action. Instead you should submit
a help request and wait for assistance. We have added or corrected several focus orb images.

General

Starting characters now start with 3 starter healing potions and
3 potions of light repair. Rogues now begin the game with a shortsword instead of a dagger. In order to bring the stealth and invisibility systems closer to
the D&D Core Rulebooks, we've redesigned how the systems work. Monsters that think they have detected a hidden target will no
longer unerringly home in on the stealthed character; rather they will
rely on a "best guess" to target where they logically believe the
character to be. Invisibility, rather than being complete undetectability, now
routes through the stealth system as Hide and Move Silently do. When
using invisibility, you will now have to make a stealth check with a
+20 bonus. Invisibility does not grant Move Silently, and so you are
advised to activate stealth when you are invisible. Both invisibility and stealth now contain detaunt elements when
you are in a party. Opponents will prefer to attack targets that are
visible, and if they cannot find you they will eventually give up,
rather than omnisciently hunting you over long distances. Read more about the Invisibility changes href="http://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40205">here. We have fixed several typos. Fixed several stuck points throughout the world.

Vendors and NPC's

After months of pensively watching the citizens of Stormreach do
their shopping at the Marketplace Bazaar Tent instead of at their
shops, the jewelry brokers from the "Erstwhile Emporium" in House
Phiarlan and the clothing brokers from the "Empty Hand" in House
Jorasco have given in to the inevitable and relocated to the
Marketplace Bazaar. They have leased their shops to local entrepreneurs
who are hoping to make some money selling all kinds of non-magical
consumable goods to House visitors.  Fixed some (now) incorrect quest dialogue to reflect the
recent relocation of several harbor NPCs. Scrag has become more sociable and less shy. He has acclimated to
life in the big city and no longer becomes confused when more than one
person attempts to talk to him at a time. Sailor Calatin of Smuggler's Rest has taken a stroll down the
dock. He can now be found next to the Rook's Gambit Tavern. He is now
more centrally located so that you can choose to skip the
class-specific tutorials and head directly to Stormreach if you want.
However, we still recommend running through the class tutorials that
can be found in the buildings behind the Rook's Gambit.

Items

Permanently damaged items will now reduce in value at a slower
rate. Haven't been able to find the perfect Bane/Greater Bane/Slaying
arrow or bolt for the monster of your choice? Fret no more – we've
quadrupled the types of bane arrows and bolts in the game! In addition,
all Bane and Greater Bane missiles have now been added to the loot
tables for chests. Previously these powerful missiles were only
available from a few collectors. As a side effect, players will no
longer find Slaying arrows that don't have killable monsters associated
with them. The barkeeps and tavern owners of Stormreach have decided to
reward the Warforged for months of dedicated service to the city. They
are now stocking vastly improved Warforged Oil (Drink) so that the
Warforged's drinks have an effectiveness similar to non-oil drinks of
equivalent cost. A temporary magical disturbance was interfering with the
effectiveness of the Brooch of Waterbreathing but the Artificers are
pleased to announce that equilibrium has been found and the brooches
should once again give their wearer 90 seconds worth of air. The merchants of Object Desire in House Phiarlan have finally
received a long back-ordered shipment of Hold Person scrolls. They are
currently carrying a complete selection of level 3 Arcane Scrolls. We changed the description of some resistance items to help
clarify stacking. For example "of resistance" items do not stack with
items that give a bonus to a specific category of saves (i.e. will
saves). You can read the full Knowledge Base article on this topic target="_blank"
href="http://turbine.fuzeqna.com/ddo.support/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=2472">here. There is the possibility that some items have been created that
cast Fireshield. Fireshield has not been fully implemented into the
game and does not return damage to enemies that attack a fireshielded
character. These items will no longer be created, but Fireshield items
already in existence will not be changed. Fireshield does reduce damage
from fire while it is in effect.  Holy, Axiomatic, and Anarchic weapons no longer display the
Immune message when a player of the correct alignment equips them. The Brooch of Shielding and Raktu's Trifle will no longer display
an alert icon for their Magic missile shielding effects. Any new Docents of Filtration will be properly identified as
docents. Any new Thanatos Weave Robes will be properly identified as
robes.

Quests

The Blackheart chieftains in the Jungles of Khyber have become
worried about their recent heavy losses and ordered rest and
resurrection shrines be erected at their camp to aid their soldiers. The first kobold in Old Sully's Grog was finally awakened and
chased out by the wily runty kobolds. Unfortunately, the runty kobold
ordered to replace him on guard duty found the area quite comfortable,
and promptly fell asleep. A mysterious illness is plaguing the Conjured Spiders that live
in Euphonia's training ground. They are listless and weak, and do not
pose much of a threat to new adventurers as they once did.

Combat

We made some improvements to the combat feedback for critical
hits. Effects triggered by a critical hit will now show up after the
to-hit die roll in the combat chat tab. When you score a critical hit
on a monster and it resists, you will now get a "Critical Hit
Resisted!" message in the combat chat tab. We have changed the tooltip description for the Power Attack feat
to help clarify that this feat only applies to melee attacks. We have
also changed the language of several additional tooltips to help make
sure their meaning is clear as well.