DDO Update

May 10, 2006

News & Notes:

• Harbormaster Zin has been seen directing work crews in Aspirant's
  Corner, and rumor has it that they have revealed some doorways to new
  adventures.

  With new neighbors in town, Kalimnal d'Kundarak has rented
  a new house, and the Harbormaster's work has closed off the sewer
  entrance Edrun Faern was using to look for his wife. Luckily, Edrun was
  able to find another sewer hatch in Philosopher's Row to continue his
  hunt for Arissa.

• A new wave of Kobolds has moved into the Wavecrest Inn's caverns.
  These Runty Kobolds have less strength than the previous inhabitants,
  but they must be more wily to have pushed the first group out. They
  also may have slipped something to Jacoby Drexelhand, for the cleric
  seems to be out of sorts these days.
• In response to much consternation on the part of their pupils,
  the fighter trainers have held a workshop, and have found a better way
  to perform the Whirlwind attack. Whirlwind will now correctly apply
  weapon specials (i.e., elemental damage etc.) to all of the targets you
  hit and bonuses (such as the extra strength damage bonus for two handed
  weapons). Bonuses will now be applied on the last attack in the combat
  chain.
• The Healers of House Jorasco have been hard at work curing the
  Laryngitis afflicting the Bards in Stormreach. The Healers are pleased
  to announce that the Bards have been successfully healed, and their
  singing voices are back in order.
• The Coin Lords are pleased to announce that to help make life
  easier for those adventurers out there who like to have a lot of
  equipment and spells on hand, you will now be able to define a specific
  key binding for your first 50 shortcuts (the first 5 hot bars). The key
  binding will display on the shortcut, so you can quickly access any of
  your gear, loot, or abilities.

General

• Ransack Mechanic has been fixed - treasure will regenerate faster!
  • Fixed the timer for chest “ransacking” - it will now properly
    reset 1 week after the time you first looted the chest (the timer was
    broken, causing ransacking to reset much slower than intended.)
  • For this update everyone gets a one time “full reset” on
    ransacked chests.
• Changed in-game messaging to reflect the difference between
  taking damage from falling, and taking damage when something has fallen
  onto you. Players should no longer take falling damage while running.
  This should eliminate “mysterious” falling damage.
• We have made some changes to help prevent the “Character still
  being saved” state.
• We have made some improvements to monster pathing.
• We have fixed several places where players could get stuck in the
  world.

UI Improvements

• The summary page of the spellbook in the character sheet now
  updates immediately when you acquire new spell slots upon leveling up.
  No more waiting for the system to recognize your new spells!
• Added a confirmation box to warn players that your ability scores
  will reset if you hit the Back button during character creation.
• The shortcut key being pressed is now highlighted.
• Chat windows will no longer snap to the bottom when new chat text
  comes in. Instead, the down arrow will blink to indicate unread chat
  messages are outside your viewable area.
• Fixed a bug that prevented scrolling up and down with the
  mousewheel when tooltips were open.

Combat

• Players will no longer accidentally kill each other with two
  weapon fighting and glancing blows.
• Per D&D rules, the manyshot feat no longer applies to
  crossbow combat.

Quests

• Xorian's Cipher
  • Adjusted the treasure levels for several chests and added some
    rare item drops to certain chests.
  • Fewer skeletons will spawn in the split party encounter of
    Xorian Cipher.
  • Moved the location of a rest shrine.
• Ruins of Threnal
  • Find the Gate Chamber - This quest no longer requires a
    rogue. Also, a new rest shrine has been made available.
  • Library –
    • Fixed a problem where players could prevent themselves
      from advancing through the quest by using a switch too early.
    • Fixed a problem that was allowing players to kill the
      final boss before they had received the objective to kill the boss,
      effectively breaking the quest.
• The Depths of Despair
  • Fixed a chest that was frequently spawning without the random
    named monster it was suppose to appear with.
• Stormcleave Outpost
  • There are some new challenges to the Boss encounter (General
    Xantilar). Adventurers beware!
  • The portal for entry to General Xantilar is now a one-way
    ticket until he has been killed.
  • The crate collection optional quest is now able to be
    completed.
• Tharashk Arena
  • Levers have been added to the interiors of the monster ready
    rooms to prevent players from becoming trapped inside.
• Sorrowdusk Island (Justice for Grust)
  • Fixed a room where players could get trapped.
• Jungle of Khyber
  • Parties will no longer be permanently split by a closing
    door. The door will now reopen after a certain amount of time.
• Delera's Tomb – The Missing Party
  • Delera will now correctly path through the doorway.
• Temple of Vol
  • Fixed a bug where players received the wrong alert text when
    approaching the inner sanctum.

Monsters

• Intelligent Skeletons who have Command Undead cast on them will
  now correctly perform a will save check.
• Shades in the Chamber of Insanity now deal more damage, have more
  hit points, and have a higher CR noted.
• Vault of Night Dungeon (VON quest part 5): The Rust Emperor will
  now correctly drop the required crystal key when playing this dungeon
  on the Hard or Elite setting.

Items

• Changed the description of tomes to properly reflect their usage.
  Characters only gain the benefit of the best “plus” tome read for each
  ability. These effects do not stack with each other.
• Fixed the description of Elixirs of Mnemonic Enhancement to
  properly reflect their effect (the add spell points).
• Fixed the Kundarak Shield of Warding to have the correct minimum
  level of 10.
• Warforged are now vulnerable to the Smiting and Slay Construct
  item effects.
• Redwillow treasure drops have been modified to make some
  high-value items drop less frequently.
• Added more detail to the descriptions of stability items,
  including the fact that they can be worn only by true neutral players.
• The Brooch of Shielding and Raktu's Trifle now properly protects
  you from Magic Missiles as long as the item is equipped.

NPCs

• Salar Riptalon's (Arcane Reagent Vendor - House Jorasco) vacation
  is over. His shop is once again open for business.