Official Feedback Thread: Cloaked Ascendancy Campaign

ontheriver · January 2017

On this preview build, players will have access to the new campaign: The Cloaked Ascendancy.

Access

You’ll need to be on the Preview Shard to test the campaign, with a level 70 character.
Once you complete the intro quest you should be able to earn currency and progress the campaign immediately.

Features

New campaign that players progress by engaging in the new River District zone
Tasks that improve the campaign store as players progress
New series of boons for players to choose from as they progress through the campaign

Known Issues

Currency earn rates and costs are still subject to change.
Daily quest should be available much earlier in the campaign.
Missing a couple of icons.

Feedback Desired

We’re interested in any feedback you have about the campaign as you play in the new zone. Tasks should unlock in a relatively timely manner, and players should feel like they are making progress. Some things to consider:

Can you unlock all the tasks and boons?
Are you earning campaign progress at a steady rate?
Is it clear how to engage in the system? Where to go, what to do, how to earn the currencies you need?

Here’s how to give feedback:

Respond to this forum post.
Type: Bug or Feedback (Please only choose one)
Format: Please use boldface text for the Type, and then type your feedback in the body of your post. If you are listing a bug please have this text in RED, and if you are posting an opinion or feedback please use LIGHT BLUE.
Concise feedback is best
Screenshots are much appreciated

Examples of Feedback

Bug: I can’t complete the task to Confront Gyrion
I have the correct currency and meet all other requirements, but the task never completes.

Feedback: Not earning Evidence of Evil fast enough
I don't get enough Evidence of Evil from playing in the River District. It feels like it would take a long time to complete the wizard tasks.

beckylunatic · January 2017

Feedback: Secure the District/Resist the Rituals decrease over time
I know you get 1 security/mob kill in the River District (regardless of difficulty). Resistance seems to come from participating in HEs; rate uncertain. I find the depletion mechanic strongly objectionable. This is essentially penalizing players who aren't able to sit down and kill 100 enemies in order to claim a reward, or do enough HEs in a session to fill that bar. I had 100/100 Security on my character last night (can't actually do anything with it yet) and am checking the UI at least 6 hours prior to the time I logged off the previous day, and it is at 26/100, so almost 75% depleted. If I logged on at the same time I had started yesterday, I'd expect it to be at 0/100 or close. Why would you make this? Someone who only fills it a little and then has to go constantly resets to 0? Someone who gets called away when it's almost full and doesn't make it back until the next day gets reset too? I urge you to just kill this mechanic off completely. This is so unfriendly to people with lives and families and jobs and who try to game just a little bit before work or bedtime and etc. If you want players to be telling themselves, "oh, just one more HE before bed" that needs to be because they're really into it (or because they're determined to claim that reward tonight!), not because they're going to get their progress reset if they don't. This is not a place to use negative reinforcement.

Feedback: Inventory Hogging... AGAIN
You've created this nifty display counter that shows how many reclaimed resources we have (while in the zone that uses them), but they also take up bag space. Why do they need to be items? Or if you can't track them without having an item for the game to count, why can't they be currency, which at least doesn't take up room? I recognize that you're probably supposed to spend it as you pick it up, and I am not because I don't know if there's a "best" way to invest it (esp. on preview where the guard posts are routinely destroyed), but you have to spend these resources in set quantities and even if you empty it all out, you'll get more as soon as you kill something else.

I also have a map to track down and two slots of quest items for Reclamation Specialists until I find another group of hostile adventurers. Most of the space I got back from the addition of the useful items tab is gone.

hastati96 · January 2017

"Aura of Hope"(stuns enemies in 25feet for 4 secs) and "Aura of Despair" (ap boost for the whole group) - Please be careful with these boons.
If "Aura of Hope" stacks it could be totally game breaking. 5 times AP gain boost would be too much. Same with "Aura of Despair" it could prevent perma CC.

hustin1 · January 2017

Feedback: Campaign mission "An Old Flame"
After doing the quest a couple of times (I decided to copy my latest build over from Live and re-run the campaign), I really think you should revisit the dialogue between Bradda and Kabal. It seems way too short and just...unnatural. I think it needs at least one more exchange between them before Bradda says he's not the man she knew. There should be something that shows her coming to this realization.

hustin1 · January 2017

Feedback: bought and looted maps
Two points: the blue treasure maps that we get from sewers, dungeons, etc. really should stack. Also, I've forgotten which areas (sewer, dungeon, crypt) lean toward which resources (weapons, riches, magic). I'm sure that someone can tell me but it seems that there should be a tooltip or something ingame that also reminds players which goes with which.

hustin1 · January 2017

Bug: Can't start Secure the District task.
I've tried many times but I can't get the task to begin. When I tell it to start, nothing happens. Also, there really should be a counter visible somewhere on the campaign window that tells me how much "security" I have.

beckylunatic · January 2017

ontheriver said:

Feedback: Not earning Evidence of Evil fast enough
I don't get enough Evidence of Evil from playing in the River District. It feels like it would take a long time to complete the wizard tasks.

Now that the bugged quest has been fixed, there are indicators that this is a very astute sample feedback. Are they only supposed to be uber-rare random drops?

arbitrarity · January 2017

Seconding Evidence of Evil drop rate being an issue. Secrets of the Many-Starred are also very rare, but you might get them from confronting wizards or something. Evidence of Evil seems exceedingly rare, and if you're supposed to get it from the Travelling Merchant... well, first you need 30 to unlock him. I presently have 5, and 500 abandoned treasures, after probably a dozen hours. Perhaps there's a daily quest that isn't in place or bugged?

beckylunatic · January 2017

Turning in 50 reclaimed resources to the shipmaster grants 15 security. You get security for putting resources into the guard posts.

Feedback: Messaging is sorely lacking for how to earn anything
The shipmaster lets you turn in resources, but doesn't say what you get in return, so you just have to try it and see what happens. We've figured out Abandoned Treasures are from HE rewards. I have 16 Evidence of Evil but no clue where I picked those up. Someone also mentioned that it would be nice if the dig site maps told you which resource each was best for. I echo that.

Some of the system announcements are likewise unhelpful. I know the Traveling Merchant has just arrived at the docks, but where, and do i want/need to go out of my way to see this merchant, and can I even figure out where to go and fight my way there before it leaves? Help!

rickcase276 · January 2017

Abandoned treasures also come from the treasure chests, but again nothing tells you that is what you could get.

beckylunatic · January 2017

hustin1 said:
Bug: Can't start Secure the District task.
I've tried many times but I can't get the task to begin. When I tell it to start, nothing happens. Also, there really should be a counter visible somewhere on the campaign window that tells me how much "security" I have.

[System Notify] You have enough Security to complete the Secure the District campaign task!

But it doesn't start. I think I need to complete a previous task, but... no indicator as to what, exactly.

beckylunatic · January 2017

beckylunatic said:
Feedback: Secure the District/Resist the Rituals decrease over time
I know you get 1 security/mob kill in the River District (regardless of difficulty). Resistance seems to come from participating in HEs; rate uncertain. I find the depletion mechanic strongly objectionable. This is essentially penalizing players who aren't able to sit down and kill 100 enemies in order to claim a reward, or do enough HEs in a session to fill that bar. I had 100/100 Security on my character last night (can't actually do anything with it yet) and am checking the UI at least 6 hours prior to the time I logged off the previous day, and it is at 26/100, so almost 75% depleted. If I logged on at the same time I had started yesterday, I'd expect it to be at 0/100 or close. Why would you make this? Someone who only fills it a little and then has to go constantly resets to 0? Someone who gets called away when it's almost full and doesn't make it back until the next day gets reset too? I urge you to just kill this mechanic off completely. This is so unfriendly to people with lives and families and jobs and who try to game just a little bit before work or bedtime and etc. If you want players to be telling themselves, "oh, just one more HE before bed" that needs to be because they're really into it (or because they're determined to claim that reward tonight!), not because they're going to get their progress reset if they don't. This is not a place to use negative reinforcement.

Okay... so the patch notes say this has been made to decrease FASTER. And while I have figured out a couple of ways to increase Security by more than one point at time, my Resistance is decreasing because I went and looted dig sites and looked for maps for a while and stopped doing HEs. It has lost two points in the time I've been reading patch notes and checking on UI changes in-game and writing up feedback.

But, I suppose I should go do some stuff on live for now and enjoy the fact that both will have reset completely to zero by the time I get back to beating my head against the wall on preview again.

(I like the module. I'm having fun with it. But the lack of direction with the campaign is exasperating.)

nisckis · January 2017

beckylunatic said:

hustin1 said:
Bug: Can't start Secure the District task.
I've tried many times but I can't get the task to begin. When I tell it to start, nothing happens. Also, there really should be a counter visible somewhere on the campaign window that tells me how much "security" I have.
[System Notify] You have enough Security to complete the Secure the District campaign task!

But it doesn't start. I think I need to complete a previous task, but... no indicator as to what, exactly.

You must complete the bottom left campaign task. I discovered it by trial and error

mistran · January 2017

i am completly stuck at this point, i have no more quests to run and i have no evidence of evil, i don't even know where to get it from

instynctive · January 2017

I can't even get onto preview, so I have nothing to add. It's stuck at the "Neverwinter" load screen.

beckylunatic · January 2017

nisckis said:

beckylunatic said:

hustin1 said:
Bug: Can't start Secure the District task.
I've tried many times but I can't get the task to begin. When I tell it to start, nothing happens. Also, there really should be a counter visible somewhere on the campaign window that tells me how much "security" I have.
[System Notify] You have enough Security to complete the Secure the District campaign task!

But it doesn't start. I think I need to complete a previous task, but... no indicator as to what, exactly.
You must complete the bottom left campaign task. I discovered it by trial and error

@nisckis Thank you.

I was trying to save enough to complete the task that says it unlocks a store so I could check the store, but I guess I'll do this instead.

hustin1 · January 2017

Feedback: Reclaimed weapons
There is a huge disparity between drop rates of reclaimed items. I can get enough reclaimed magic to fill the counter to 100, but reclaimed weapons are extremely hard to get. This really doesn't make any sense as we're looting green weapons like crazy, and simply looks like a needless way to make everything harder (unless, of course it's a bug). At any rate, trying to get reclaimed weapons is *extremely* frustrating.

Feedback: Dungeon dig site
I just entered one and I can hear Rohini taunting patients in the Sanatorium. She's back?

beckylunatic · January 2017

hustin1 said:
Feedback: Reclaimed weapons
There is a huge disparity between drop rates of reclaimed items. I can get enough reclaimed magic to fill the counter to 100, but reclaimed weapons are extremely hard to get. This really doesn't make any sense as we're looting green weapons like crazy, and simply looks like a needless way to make everything harder (unless, of course it's a bug). At any rate, trying to get reclaimed weapons is *extremely* frustrating.

@hustin1 Fight more Nashers and Mercs. Each critter type and each dig site type has a type of resource they are weighted towards. Both do get some explanatory dialogue via NPC delivery at some point, but I don't think you can refer back to either.

hustin1 · January 2017

I know. I kill lots of Nashers. I still wind up with ten times as much magic as weapons.

hustin1 · January 2017

Feedback: Evidence of Evil campaign costs are high
Just looking at the campaign window (and ignoring the costs for weapons), it looks like you need 900 Evidence of Evil after completing the four intro quests to complete the campaign. So far, I've only seen two sources of evidence: replaying the intro quests (which give 5 evidence per run) and HE's. I soloed the small HE in the chasm area (the only one that's reasonably soloable) several times and wound up with one evidence.

One. I've done it at least half a dozen times, and I even soloed the fire and fey ritual HE's once for good measure (both of which are brutally hard).

I have no doubt that there will be other sources of evidence, but since it obviously hasn't been worked out or revealed yet, this would be a good time to issue a warning of sorts: don't make it too grindy. Many people are sitting out mod 10.5 (myself included) because the grind just isn't fun. Grinds like the ones in mod 1, 2, 8, and 9 are reasonable. Mod 3 (IWD) is marginal. It's hard for me to evaluate 4 and 5 since they blend together. By contrast, the grind in mod 10 is excessive. Please do not make 11 as grindy (or even close to it). Enough players have made it clear that mod 10.5 is too grindy that they will expect a course correction.

beckylunatic · January 2017

Ok, so not only can you get 5 EofE per run by replaying the original quests, Kali Gold says there is eventually a daily mission for 30 EofE, so that's considerably less bad than initial impressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwyvRXgwgmY

(click through to YouTube and see pinned comment about the daily)

ghoulz66 · January 2017

I'm going to be pissed off if all this grinding involves having to unlock SP caverns.

hustin1 · January 2017

Feedback: Texture weirdness in Fey Castle
It looks like there are some Z-order issues or something going on. The black background looks like polygons aren't matching up or something? It's very hard to tell. When I move the camera around, it disappears entirely. Loc: -354, 3856.

On a side note, it would be really nice if the layout was at least a little different instead of just being a section of Malabog's Castle. I could walk around this part blindfolded. That said, the boss fight was really neat. Very imaginative.

It seems to me that this lair is just begging for lore entries. Just a thought...

ontheriver · January 2017

beckylunatic said:
...Kali Gold says there is eventually a daily mission for 30 EofE, so that's considerably less bad than initial impressions.

Yes, the daily quest was incorrectly gated, making it inaccessible until later - that will be fixed so there shouldn't be such a shortage of Evidence! Thanks for the feedback.

ontheriver · January 2017

mistran said:
i am completly stuck at this point, i have no more quests to run and i have no evidence of evil, i don't even know where to get it from

This should be corrected once the proper daily gating is implemented, thanks for letting us know.

ontheriver · January 2017

beckylunatic said:
Feedback: Messaging is sorely lacking for how to earn anything

Duly noted! I will take a pass through the campaign tasks, item tooltips, and so on looking for places to improve the messaging for what's required and where to find it. The feedback is much appreciated.

beckylunatic · January 2017

Bug: Missions do not include Evidence of Evil in reward list
While I didn't independently discover that Neverember had the option to repeat quests, had I gotten around to checking with him - returning to PE to check for River District quests is not the most intuitive thing ever - the rewards reportedly don't even show that you get this currency for grinding them. Seeing as how repeating story quests from prior campaigns gets you diddly pipski other than a chance at missed achievements, that's not intuitive either, and was discovered by players trying everything out of desperation.

There should also be some indication that you can repeat quests by visiting PE Neverember. Even direction text from completing the intro chain with him in the first place, which I don't think is currently present.

adinosii · January 2017

hustin1 said:
Feedback: bought and looted maps
Two points: the blue treasure maps that we get from sewers, dungeons, etc. really should stack.

Identical maps do stack - or at least those I have seen. What bothers me abot the maps is that they look similar to the maps from 10.5, but behave differently - here you need to dig up the chest and disable the traps separately....which is a bit confusing the first time.

beckylunatic · January 2017

If a treasure map was a simple consumable that you could just use anywhere, it would make sense that they'd all stack, but each location's map is a unique item.

I haven't run into any maps that seemed difficult or confusing. All the ones I've found just involve twiddling with whatever is sparkly until you run out of sparklies and get loot. But I have not found a map yet that had a chest that wasn't right by where you disable the trap, so it sounds like more complicated ones might also exist.

Because I don't remember what kind of resources correspond to dig site types, I've only bought a specific sewer map the one time I was prompted to. I've just rolled with a random dig site the rest of the time. I would expect sewer maps to stack if I bought 5 of them or whatever, but they don't correspond to a location... they meet the condition of being a consumable you can use anywhere.

hustin1 · January 2017

Bug: Fey Castle quest: Dialogue not quite right
When you first go through the portal you have to talk to Alihan Duskflight. The last sentence of his dialogue reads, "I have brought these stags here in the hope of organizing an assault on the castle they're yours to ride." I believe this should be two sentences: "...castle. They're yours to ride."

rickcase276 · January 2017

The one by the unicorn statue in the Tainted Grove is not that near to the disarming part, which is easy to find. The chest itself is hiding underneath a plant and tree, and not that easy to find.