Maze Engine Preview Patch Notes NW.60.20160301d.3 (3/8 Edit)

terramak

Updated to NW.60.20160301d.3 - Only change in this build is to address Orcus' flight animation. Larger build coming later this week.

Highlights

Revived Dungeons
Four dungeons from the past have been revived: Cloak Tower, Pirate King's Retreat (formerly Lair of the Pirate King), Frozen Heart, and Caverns of Karrundax! Like Cragmire Crypts, Gray Wolf Den, and Temple of the Spider, once players reach the minimum level for the dungeon, they'll be able to go back and play regardless of level. For more info, see the dev blog here!

The Cloak Tower is now on NeverwinterPreview! All the revived dungeons are now available, as are the intro quests leading the player to them.

Feedback threads:
Caverns of Karrundax
Pirate King's Retreat
The Frozen Heart
Cloak Tower - Now on Preview!


Release Notes

Content and Environment
General

• Various issues with terrain and environment objects have been addressed. Terrain lighting is improved as a result, and objects on the southern side of the Stronghold map once again properly show up.

Castle Never

• Cutscenes and audio in this dungeon now sync up more accurately.
  
• Enemies no longer teleport through the wall in the final state room.
  
• Legendary Dragon Keys can now properly be used to open the end chest.
  
• Tal'gath the Watcher's character art has been updated.
  
• Tal'gath the Watcher no longer spawns underground
  
• The guard on the bridge no longer dies before the relevant cutscene plays.
  
• When defeating Cthylar the Illithilich, the room now reverts to its normal state before loot is dropped.
  
• When fighting Cthylar the Illithilich and the room flips, players are no longer incorrectly dropped onto spikes when they had been standing in a safe spot.

Cragmire Crypts

• The 3-player version of this dungeon now has a different Adventuring Party with rewards more in line with other 3-player miniboss encounters.

The Frozen Heart

• Players may no longer interact with the Winterforged Golem room's entrance while in combat.

The Maze Engine Campaign

• A major audio pass has been made across the campaign, improving ambience, music, and effects across the board.
  
• Aiding Bruenor Battlehammer: Players may no longer incorrectly receive this quest from both Sergeant Knox and the Neverwinter Messenger at the same time.
  
• Demonic Siege: Enemies in this quest no longer incorrectly drop Dragon Hoard Coffers.
  
• In Nature's Defense: The number of waves in this quest is now 6, down from 9.
  
• In Nature's Defense: The boss fight at the end of this quest is now a little more challenging.
  
• Mantol-Derith Defense: Players may now properly leave this quest's instance.
  
• Vizeran's character art has been updated.

Combat and Powers
Class Powers

• Devoted Cleric: Flame Strike: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.
  
• Devoted Cleric: Searing Light: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.
  
• Control Wizard: Oppressive Force: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.
  
• Hunter Ranger: Cordon of Arrows: The inverse Repel / Pull caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.
  
• Scourge Warlock: Dreadtheft: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Companions

• Iron Golem: Dazing Fist: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Item Powers

• Ring of Cowardice: The Repel effect caused by this item's effect is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

Mount Powers

• Mount: Coastal Flail Snail: Flail Snail Charge: The Repel effect caused by this power is now properly affected by Control Bonus, Control Resistance, and Control Immunity.

NPCs

• Pirate King's Retreat: Redolent Surgeon: This miniboss' Stench of Death power now consistently shows its visual effects and "dangerous area" zone, regardless of whether there's a target within range.

Items and Economy
Mounts

• Mounts purchased from the Zen Market can no longer be discarded.

General

• Armor in the Dread Ring campaign store now properly binds to Account instead of Character.
  
• Castle Never: Abyssal enemies in the Orcus encounter no longer incorrectly drop loot.
  
• Masterwork Professions: All equipment produced by Masterwork Profession tasks are now Item Level 145, up from 140. This affects existing equipment as well, but does not affect Stronghold Artifact Weapons.
  
• Seals of the Adventurer now properly have icons, and the Seal Vendor has been updated to use them.
  
• Stronghold Icon: This item's stats at Legendary quality are now properly in line with other equivalent off-hand Artifact Equipment.
  
• Strongholds: Master Artificers no longer contribute as much to the Labor coffer as Grandmasters of any other profession.
  
• Strongholds: Shards of Dragonforged Steel can now be donated to the Treasures of Tyranny coffer for 1,000 points.
  
• The unreleased Ring of Natural Order no longer appears on the Collections pages, as there are no longer plans to release the item in the near future.

User Interface
Campaigns

• The Tyranny of Dragons campaign no longer shows a redundant "Speak to Elminster" unlock requirement.

Mounts

• The "Open Another" button can no longer appear when binding a Mount.
  
• Tooltips are no longer practically empty for mounts a player already owns.

Queues

• The layout of the Queue UI has received a major update. Please tell us what you think!
  
• The "Return to Instance" button has returned, allowing players to actually leave a queued instance for a short while.

Graphics, Effects, and Animation

• NeverwinterPreview only: Castle Never: The visual effects in the Orcus encounter have been updated for improved readability and awesomeness.
  
• NeverwinterPreview only: Pirate King's Retreat: Bartholomew Blackdagger's PBAoE warning circle no longer disappears mid-channel.

Stability and Performance

• A couple more issues that could cause client crashes or server disconnects have been resolved.

Localization

• The first major localization pass is complete! The supported languages for Neverwinter Module 9: The Maze Engine are English, French, German, Italian, and Russian.

whitestarua

@terramak

Localization
The bulk of the text in Module 9: The Maze Engine has received a first pass of localization in French, German, Italian, and Russian.

but still not on lurker?
when we can test this? 16th of march?

Please, give us the opportunity to test new module....

hustin1

FYI: there is a narrow door exiting Orcus' room that drops you below the world if you go through it (which causes other problems as well). I posted details in the CN feedback thread.

scathias

when i open the queue window i can't type in chat. i get the error
[System Notify] Unknown command "Player_Forcedropmission".

The little green window that says press any key to continue never goes away and also produces the above error

I can still not solo queue for demogorgon (master) even though i meet the requirements. It says i have not unlocked epic demo yet


Also, i didn't know that Dreadtheft from SW had repel effects. I have never ever noticed anything like this before

mamalion1234

Question maybe i missing something dreadtheft ever had repel effect?

vteasy

I see you removed Ring of Natural Order. This is a good move however it leave me with this question. Why do you allow TWO rings that see through stealth? These are obv only used in PvP and complete negate the TR class ability?

at the very least change the cooldown to 10 seconds every 60 seconds instead of every 30 seconds.

I would very much like to hear the reasoning behind both adding it and keeping it in the game. Are the TR's not as loud as GWFs when it comes to stopping these thing??

scathias

vteasy said:

I see you removed Ring of Natural Order. This is a good move however it leave me with this question. Why do you allow TWO rings that see through stealth? These are obv only used in PvP and complete negate the TR class ability?

at the very least change the cooldown to 10 seconds every 60 seconds instead of every 30 seconds.

I would very much like to hear the reasoning behind both adding it and keeping it in the game. Are the TR's not as loud as GWFs when it comes to stopping these thing??

The stealth sight rings can also be used to counter the ambush ring so that could be a good argument for keeping them in. Personally i would rather that both stealth sight rings, ambush and cowardice were just gone from the game

mamalion1234

orcus still deal that high damage? 600k 800k 600k 800k per hit?

mamalion1234

opressive force change i waited it for it since mod 6. ALWAYS bothered me pushing the boss and kill tank while was trying control adds. that is the one reason the other is: Poeple used to push bosses on spikes with opressive.................

cromejohnsen

Terramak, what about the Dread weapon echantment? Is it going to work on release Day?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

wildfirede

Glad to see you managed to reproduce the z-axis first boss bug in CN and fix it,
As this is will be the only new content for endgame - it is nice to see it was looked into and repaired, keep it up


Sidenote: could you make (eventually in the future too) a NPC somewhere in protector's that sells the new things for copper
or make them free from ZEN store - This way people could actually test things like Mount bonuses and so on on the test server.

wildfirede

Edit :sorry the second post should be an edit - not quote from myself - missclick.

adinosii

I'm happy to see that Tal'gath was fixed, and also that In Nature's Defense was changed the way I suggested - it should be better now. There are still some issues that remain of those I have reported - the mount animation for the Heavy Twilight Nightmare - on Preview it got the orange flames like the Heavy Inferno nightmare, instead of the blue flames it used to have.

And yes, if you fix that, please look at all the mount bonuses that say they give a 0% increase to something....it looks really odd.

Rge only really big thing that remains is the broken exit from Orcus' room, but other than that, yeah ... Mod 9 looks like it will be in decent shape on release day.

Edit: On second thought ... the new queue system really needs work.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

two30

terramak said:

Mounts purchased from the Zen Market can no longer be discarded.

This is a peculiar change. On Live, you can discard and reclaim Zen Market mounts. On Preview, if you have a duplicate mount of any mount that is already in your stable, the duplicate cannot be used.

If I'm understanding this change correctly, a player who uses a Zen Market mount, and then reclaims the same mount, will have an unusable and undiscardable mount stuck in inventory.

kolatmaster

@terramak @asterdahl @strumslinger

Dread Enchantment: This is available on Oreview, but doesn't work at all.

@thefabricant tested it out, and a new Weapon Enchantment was mentioned in Friday's blog about Underdark Treasures, but wasn't spoiled...

Can we get an answer if the Dread Enchantment will be available on 3/15, and if so will it work according to its Tool Tip?

Thanks!

someonedies

@terramak Tenser's Floating Disk?

someonedies said:

terramak said:

Items and Economy
Mounts

Tenser's Transformation: This power now properly has a recharge time.
Tenser's Transformation: This power now properly speeds the player up, as stated, rather than slowing them down.
General

@terramak
Tenser's Transformation: cool down resets when combat ends.
can we get a FIX?

scathias said:

Tenser's Disk cooldown resets almost instantly when you use it. Also the Disk's spacebar animation no longer works

beckylunatic

two30 said:

terramak said:

Mounts purchased from the Zen Market can no longer be discarded.

This is a peculiar change. On Live, you can discard and reclaim Zen Market mounts. On Preview, if you have a duplicate mount of any mount that is already in your stable, the duplicate cannot be used.

If I'm understanding this change correctly, a player who uses a Zen Market mount, and then reclaims the same mount, will have an unusable and undiscardable mount stuck in inventory.

You can't claim a Zen mount you're already holding. If this works properly, then you claim your mount and equip it to the magic pony storage facility, and never have the option to claim it again. I am a little worried about the potential for broken-ness though.

whitestarua

@terramak @asterdahl @strumslinger
About masterwork recipes.

Brocade:


Is very hard to obtain this resource. Other professions do not have so costly resources.

And in masterwork exist some items. for example mage armor:

This items need 1-3 brocade. That's too much.

Any item that requires brocade needs 1.5-2 or more resources and AD's. But this item is not better.
For example mage armor and guardian armor.


The better way is to do craft of brocade more easier.

jazzfong

Is there any notes on old T2 gear returning as transmute? I remember i saw these stuff when devs announced the returning of dungeons. But the old T2 gear from MC and VT doesnt appear in preview. Will them be back??

unknowndrama

Demonic Ichors 400 limit per week is unrealistic..we can hit the limit in 1 day or few hours ...can you
please make them like all other seals to 1200 whit the new mod?

hustin1

I logged onto preview today with the intention of checking out the new Cloak Tower, but no one else was queuing up for it. I really like the new queue window, with one exception. I tried a private queue (which said that it would ignore party restrictions), but all of the dungeons were locked out. Mousing over them showed a popup saying that I didn't meet the party requirements (weren't they supposed to be ignored?) I think that it needs some clarification.

It would be really, really nice if we could enter a three-man dungeon with less than three (or even one) or with more than three. When we as a guild party up for other things (5-man party), two of us have to leave if we want to do a leveling dungeon. That isn't fun...

hustin1

@terramak ,

Since you guys and gals are looking at achievements, do you know if Icespire Mountaineer is still broken?

Another question: would you mind putting the Serene Runestone on your "look at this" list? the bonus is pretty terrible, especially when compared to a Tranquil Enchantment.

ftryda

Can we get clarification regarding a Scourge Warlock having any repel ability with Dreadtheft? Is this new because I am certain I have never repelled anyone with dreadtheft ever... can someone on preview let us know if DT is working any differently than before?

rayrdan

@terramak

i understand balance will come when and if it will come but at least, for the love of this game, remove the ring of ambush and drains or fix it somehow as soon as possible.

blinxon

mamalion1234 said:

orcus still deal that high damage? 600k 800k 600k 800k per hit?

This! What about this huge incoming damage? Got this on radar?

beckylunatic

hustin1 said:

I logged onto preview today with the intention of checking out the new Cloak Tower, but no one else was queuing up for it. I really like the new queue window, with one exception. I tried a private queue (which said that it would ignore party restrictions), but all of the dungeons were locked out. Mousing over them showed a popup saying that I didn't meet the party requirements (weren't they supposed to be ignored?) I think that it needs some clarification.

Pug queue you can take a partial group and wait for missing roles to fill. Private queue ignores roles which the pug queue enforces, but requires full members for the content.

Personally, I'd like to see private queuing simply permit any size group. It would address a number of current dissatisfactions from a variety of player factions. People who want to solo/duo for challenge (without needing to get people to trick the queue for them). People who want to take five players into the levelling dungeons for social reasons.

(I am somewhat hopeful though that allusions to the new queue system addressing other longstanding complaints mean this system might eventually allow PvP premades to challenge each other instead of simul-queuing and wishing they get matched.)

terramak

Clarification on Dreadtheft: The very first tick of the power has a small repel on it, which is not documented in the tooltip. The repel itself is not new to the Preview build, so you should see no significant changes to its functionality other than things like "Bosses won't get nudged by the power."

Given how small the repel is and the lack of mention on the tooltip, I'd suspect the design intent was for feel rather than functionality. The fix in this build is just to shore up any odd cases that may result from being able to nudge things that aren't supposed to be nudged.

terramak

Lotta feedback and bug reports in this thread; I've passed a lot of them along to the team. Thanks a bunch for your feedback and reports!

@whitestarua : I aim to get Lurker updated with the Module 9 build next time we patch Preview. I know it's pretty late in the game for this module release, but I'll see about getting an earlier preview to our Russian players for the next module release.

hustin1

Thanks for reporting back to us; I'm on Preview and I'd like to get you some feedback on Cloak Tower, but there are only 5 or 6 of us in PE...

(Hint: just look for the HR with the green redcap hat...)