Gaming « Ark's Ark

DDO Beta Patch!

Another DDO beta patch came along yesterday. I’ll just link to it this time. Those things take up too much space!

There is also a very strong rumour making the rounds that monk will make it in before release. Would certainly be nice. Though I care rather more about gnomes and druids.

DDO NDA lifted

The NDA covering Dungeons and Dragons Online has been lifted!

I will, time permitting, and now I have found a land worth adventuring in again (WoW, sadly kept me interested for about 2 months), hopefully get a bit of life into this site again.

For now, let me say that I took part in the stress test in early December, and found it good. Many a kobold did die by my blades, and yet more from my burning hands. I’m now waiting, in some pain, for the European beta to begin, for surely the gods would not be so cruel as to deprive Stormreach of me!

Anyway, here are the most recent patch notes. It fixes several of my most worrying issues:

Dungeons & Dragonsâ„¢ Online: Stormreachâ„¢ Beta 4 Release Notes 22-Dec-2005

Welcome to Beta 4! The focus of this update is on bug fixes, game balance, and polish items. Highlights include:

Weâ€™ve fixed a number of quests that were previously inaccessible or impossible to complete.

We did a bunch of balance work and bugfixing on the enhancement system.

We made some tweaks to the way the game hands out XP rewards.

We added a ton of missing and updated icons to the game.

Happy holidays from everyone at Turbine – enjoy the update!

Content

Performed a major overhaul on the Caverns of Korromar. Please give this dungeon a try and let us know what you think!

Made a number of fixes and adjustments to the Heart of Tempest’s Spine. This dungeon should now be fully playable.

The area of Gwylan’s Stand that contains most of the Hidden Stash containers is now accessible.

Bruku now gives the Cult of the Six quest at the appropriate time.

Fixed some problems with the Ambush at Sea quest. It should now be completable.

There is now a way to get the Necromancer’s Thrall quest from Hargo Kinmare even if you don’t have a high bluff skill.

Fixed a bug that made it difficult to give Corporal Delvascon the crates he requests.

If you abandon the Gwylan’s Stand quest, you will now correctly return to Corelay d’Phiarlan.

Exploding barrels explode again.

The tents in the excavation site are no longer breakable.

Fixed some instancing problems with the Troglodyte Clutch dungeon. It will now behave as expected.

Fixed some instancing problems with Sorrowdusk Island.

Magefire Cannon Crates are now correctly labeled; they were previously called Precious Crates.

The outdoor Threnal Ruins area is now nicely landscaped.

As always, fixed a number of floating and otherwise misplaced objects throughout the world.

Vendors with multiple shops now filter their inventory correctly based on your selection â€“ when you look at one of their shops, you won’t see items that belong to a different shop.

User Interface

Dragging an item from your inventory to your paper doll will now auto-equip it.

The “X” button on the advancement panel now closes the advancement window and cancels advancement as expected.

Saving and loading custom keymappings should now work correctly.

Added a whole lot of new icons.

Completed quests now always sort to the bottom of your quest journal, in order to improve the visibility of underway quests.

Changed the default color of NPC text in the chat window from horrid purple to a pleasant, soothing green.

Fixed a focus orb display issue when viewing warforged NPCs.

Fixed a character generation bug that made it difficult to select wizard spells.

Hitting the Cancel button on the Guild panel will now actually cancel what you’re doing instead of trying to process an empty string.

Guild successor and leader icons now update correctly.

Fixed and updated a number of portal screens.

Fixed and updated a number of maps.

Combat

Increased the speed of some melee attacks.

Untargeted melee attacks will now hit the nearest monster in range, even if other non-monster targets (PCs, crates, etc.) are closer.

Removed or shortened wind-up animations for many combat feats.

The cleave and great cleave feats no longer have counters on them.

Sap should now work correctly, and should now have an animation for human males.

You should now be able to use melee feats unarmed.

If you have the appropriate exotic weapon feat, repeating crossbows will fire three times before reloading instead of just once.

Gameplay

It’s now much easier to run uphill when in water flows.

All XP bonuses are now calculated as a percentage of the base XP. This gives equal weight to a bonus regardless of its position in the XP tabulation.

XP bonuses for destroying all breakables, looting all chests, and finding all secret doors should now work correctly.

The XP penalty for completing a quest multiple times now bottoms out at -90% instead of -100%.

Resting in a tavern will now cure harmful removed-on-rest effects (e.g., temporary negative levels) and will recharge items with limited charges per day.

Bookshelves that conceal secret doors are now much easier to detect.

Weapons will now reappear after performing an action that conceals them (using a lever, emoting, etc.)

Fixed some problems with the way guilds were being stored on the server.

Fixed a bug where the jump animation was not playing correctly.

Fixed some problems with the chat server that would cause guild or party chat to become unavailable.

Improved readability and fixed a number of typos in DM text and NPC dialogues.

Characters

The barbarian fast movement ability now works correctly.

Increased the damage reduction benefits on the barbarian Action Boost enhancement.

The benefits of the Extra Rage enhancement are now properly lost when the enhancement is removed.

Warforged and barbarian damage reduction benefits and feats now stack properly.

The warforged adamantine body feat now correctly applies damage reduction 2/adamantine.

The Dwarven Faith enhancements are now purchasable at the appropriate levels.

Lowered the base attack bonus requirement on some dwarven enhancements (Giant Dodger and Dwarven Cleverness) to a more reasonable level.

Added rogue enhancements for faster sneaking.

Pre-generated clerics now have access to the Summon Monster 1 spell.

The cleric Divine Cleansing II and III enhancements now correctly give +6 and +8 bonuses, respectively, instead of +4.

Changed the name of the Improved Empowering cleric enhancement to Improved Empower Healing, as the enhancement only affects the Empowering Heal feat.

Paladins can select the Extra Smite enhancement at level 1.

Paladin Lay on Hands enhancements no longer have the Cleave feat as a prerequisite.

The paladin Rally enhancement now works as advertised.

Bard music enhancements will now play the correct music and animations.

Fixed a bug that would cause certain damage amplification enhancements (Improved Combustion, Improved Glaciation, etc.) to not appear when they should.

Fixed some ability score exploits in character generation.

Reduced the number of spell points awarded for enhancements that grant extra spell points.

Enhancements that grant skill bonuses should now consistently reward the correct number of bonus points.

Spells

Instead of reducing gravity, feather fall now simply caps your maximum falling speed. While the spell is in effect, you will not take falling damage, but you will no longer be able to jump higher than normal – this is consistent with the 3.5 D&D version of the spell. Please note that items that grant feather fall will receive this fix in a future update.

Cloud spells will now fizzle if cast into water.

Stinking cloud now splatters your screen with green gunk.

Items

Added a number of trinket slot items (ioun stones, etc.)

Weapons wielded in your off-hand no longer add their enhancement bonus to your armor class.

Wands and scrolls are now flagged as one-handed items, allowing you to equip a weapon or shield in your off-hand. You will still be unable to make any melee attacks when wielding a wand or scroll, however.

When casting through a wand, particle effects now appear on the wand instead of on your hands.

Weapons with burst effects now to extra damage when their critical hit damage multiplier is higher than 2x. For instance, a Battle Axe of Flaming Burst has a 3x crit modifier, so it does an extra 2d10 damage on a successful critical hit. This is consistent with D&D 3.5.

Magic bows now apply their bonuses correctly.

Shields can now have energy resistance, spell resistance, and fortification effects.

Added more iconic D&D items to the treasure table.

Restricted some effects from appearing on inappropriate items (for instance, it is no longer possible to find a vorpal club).

Fixed a problem where some helmets would not be visible when equipped.

The treasure system will no longer generate docents with racial restrictions, as docents are inherently restricted to warforged only.

The damage resistance on light shields has been reduced to 1.

Keoghtom’s Ointment now correctly cures poison and disease, in addition to healing a small amount of hit points.

Monsters

Improved monsters’ ability to track you within melee range – this should make it somewhat harder to circle-strafe around them.

You can no longer use bluff, intimidate, or diplomacy on monsters who don’t understand Common.

Trolls no longer take increased damage from acid or fire attacks. Instead, they now lose their regeneration ability for some time after being struck by an acid or fire attack.

Increased the caster level and charisma scores of some kobold sorcerers.

Wraiths spawned by death at the hands of another wraith now have a power level in line with the original monster.

Player and monster attacks should no longer go through doors; they can still go through friendly targets though.

Minotaurs who are killed while charging will no longer cause damage at the end of their charge.

Known Issues

When you log in, there is a small chance that your ranged combat attacks will not be working – you will see your character perform shooting and reloading animations, but no ammunition will be used, no dice rolls will be made, and no damage will be done. If this happens to you, you may resolve the issue by logging out and logging back in. The issue may also resolve if another player enters your current zone.

When you switch armors, your avatar’s appearance does not always update correctly – you may appear to be wearing the old armor, or a mix of the old and new armors.

Characters may show up without any of their equipment on the character selection screen.

Rarely, you may get stuck in an object or fall through the world. If you are unable to get back to where you are, you will have to use the /suicide command and release your spirit to fix the problem.

If you try and initiate a trade with a player who is already involved in a trade transaction, you will not receive any message stating that the player is busy.

Some UI elements might be difficult to move, resize, or close because they are blocked by progress bars.

If you log out while receiving voice chat data, your client may freeze or crash.

Greetings from Azeroth! Wish you were here.

Well, I said I’d quit if they didn’t stop all this silly exchange nonsense. Apparently my single account didn’t scare them too much. Particularly sad, as I was rather enjoying Norrath, and I wish the best to the guild I leave behind. I shall continue to keep an eye on whats going on in EQ2.

Never fear though, for there are always other adventures! I picked up WoW, and am enjoying it. Something like a dumbed down version of DaoC, but my friends who have been playing a while tell me it has hidden depths. There’s also Guild Wars out on the 28th, which I’ve had on pre-order for a while.

Oh, and I hear the plague has been cured, at least on some servers. Good.

Mythic is not impressed.

Stolen shamelessly from Lum, Mythic’s CEO has stated his opposition to Station Exchange type antics. Over at Gamedaily.biz

Some highlights:

I think that not only supporting the sale of in-game characters, items and currency, but also taking a ‘cut’ of those sales, is not only a mistake but one of the worst decisions in the history of the MMORPG industry

Mythic Entertainment has turned down a number of opportunities to participate in such ventures, both with the companies that auction these goods, as well as doing it on our own. We remain committed to keeping our games as games and not as opportunities to encourage behavior that runs counter to their spirit of creativity and entertainment. We have no plans to participate in this type of service. We will gladly ‘leave money on the table’ to ensure that whether or not you like our games, that they remain as that, games and not an entertainment version of day-trading

A quick plug, as they deserve it after that! Mythic’s Dark Ages of Camelot, is quite a good game, though I haven’t played it in a while. Certainly, if you’re not wanting to stick around with SOEbay, and want something to do while waiting for Vangard, it might be worth your time checking it out.

Is it gambling?

A man goes to a casino. He exchanges dollars for chips at the entrance, and heads in. While there he plays a variety of games where the results are randomly determined, gaining and losing chips as he goes. When he is done, he exchanges his chips back for real money, and heads away, richer or (rather more likely) poorer.

A man loads up Everquest 2. He buys some plat with dollars, and heads out into Norrath. While there he slays many beasts, where the reward for doing so is randomly determined. When he is through, he sells his plat and loot for real money, and logs out, richer or poorer.

Does Station Exchange Everquest 2 count as gambling? I must admit, I cannot think of a good argument as to why it does not. I am aware that gambling laws in the US vary wildly from state to state, but I think most of them are somewhat unhappy with allowing minors to gamble. They also quite like to tax it.

For instance, Tennessee law states that “a person commits an offense who knowingly engages in gambling,”defined as “risking anything of value for a profit whose return is to any degree contingent on chance,”(From here). Can that definition ever fit in any possible permitted usage of Station Exchange? If it does, it’s illegal to even sell Everquest 2 in Tennessee.

We all know people who are addicted to Everquest 2, and many of us also know people addicted to gambling, I can’t help thinking that this is a truly undesirable merger of the two. For every one of Moorgard’s college students putting themselves through college, there might be someone who neglects themselves and their children.

In the past, while Everquest addiction was certainly not rare, SOE itself did not profit more from addicted players than non (or maybe less) adicted players. Now they will, and I find that deeply troubling.

Though perhaps I’m drawing parallels with the wrong sort of addiction. Will it be long before someone turns to real life crime in order to fund their plat habit? We’ve already had our first MMORPG-related murder.

Latest Exchange Exchanges II

So much of the distaste expressed for this service has been because some insist that all it does is enable the botters, the farmers, the slimeballs. That all Station Exchange does is make cheating legal, and that SOE is somehow saying cheating is okay as long as we profit from it. But life isn’t that simple, and neither is this issue.

I don’t know how many of you have been in a situation where you’ve known somebody who has sold an account for cash. I have. Many times, in fact. I was in a high-level guild in EQ for years, and most players who have spent any time in that kind of environment know someone who has bought or sold an account. I’ve had guildmates that I played alongside, adventured with, and whose characters I’ve helped equip sell those characters to other people. Sometimes that fact angered me, in the few cases when it was someone saying “Screw you guys, I’m cashing in.” Other times, there were people I really cared about who couldn’t play anymore and needed cash for real-life emergencies, and they needed the money they knew those characters were worth. Was I happy about it? No. But I could understand it, and I didn’t lose respect for those people as a result of the choice they made.

Likewise, there were times when we found out that someone who applied to our guild was playing a character they had purchased. Most of the time we wouldn’t consider those applications, but if it was someone we knew had played the game before and decided to return, or if they were a good player who had decided to switch to a different class and thus bought a character, we sometimes let them join. After all, the person who bought a high-level character isn’t necessarily less skilled at playing another class than the player who twinks an alt and has their friends powerlevel it.

When I think of an auction service, these are the kinds of issues that hit home for me, because I’ve lived through them. This service isn’t all about botters and farmers; it’s also about real people who have to leave the game for personal reasons or who simply want to get a leg up in a complex kind of game.

I’ve made a number of posts about this subject, because there has been a lot of misinformation and assumptions made that I don’t think are entirely fair. But you’ll notice that in none of my posts have I tried to convert anyone to use this service. I wouldn’t use it myself, and I would have no interest in playing on an Exchange server personally. But to simply paint Exchange as nothing more than a sweatshop enabler simply isn’t true. There are real people who want to sell the right to use the characters or things they’ve justly acquired to other real people willing to buy them. Is it right from a purist gaming standpoint? I’m not saying it is or isn’t. But I’m saying it’s a reality that you can’t ignore, and the thing that Station Exchange does is to provide a safe place where it’s okay for those two honest people to do what they want to do in a safe and secure way. And I’m being completely honest when I say that I don’t see that as a bad thing.

– Moorgard

There’s so much in this post, I’ll probably be nibbling at it for the rest of the day.

1. Moorgard admits to being aware of account/plat selling, and doing nothing about it. So much for SOE’s enforcement of the rules. Assuming such enforcement happens, you needn’t worry if you’re in Moorgard’s guild, I’m sure.

2. Recent dev posts have been liberally sprinkled with college students paying their way through college, and people with real life problems. This is so that anyone critising Exchange can be characterised as lacking compassion. Where were all these people before Station Exchange could make a profit off them? Will people with Real-life emergencies who sell on non-exchange servers still be banned? Is it right that Exchange is extracting a cut from such people on Exchange servers? Should we even be charging them monthly fees?

3. People who “simply want to get a leg up in a complex kind of game.” over the other players. Sometimes called cheats and exploiters. Remind me, why are we banning exploiters anyway? They’re just regular folks, *sniff*. Bobby needs his speed hack to keep up with all the compentent players. Oh the humanity!

Latest Exchange Exchanges

I think Moorgard must be emotionally exhausted. They’ve wheeled Brenlo out.

It’s a game not a morality lesson. It is no more immoral than buying a hammer instead of making your own or buying corn rather than growing your own. It is no more immoral than house rules in Monopoly or house words in Scrabble.

And let’s please stop the labeling of anyone who says this isn’t so bad as a plat farmer or a character seller it really diminishes all of the cogent and well thought out discussion. This is not the McCarthy hearings, it is a game.

– Brenlo

Getting a tidgy bit defensive there. “Are you, or have you ever been, a capitalist?”

Buyers and sellers remain completely anonymous. No Station name, forum name, email, or anything else is surfaced anywhere public.

-the mysterious Hammerfel

And I wonder why? IGE is only anonymous because it’s trade is illicit. Ebay is not anonymous.Without names, all the items and money appearing for sale could have been put up for sale by our worst foe, the servers most notorious bot-team, or simply spirited out of the ether.

Developing…

Alexa