Maze Engine Preview Patch Notes: NW.62.20160613a.4

terramak

kacezet said:

What is this? A Bulette for ants?

Hahahah, so good. I'll get that into the internal database shortly, but your comment killed me.

Re: Summer Festival: Finally flipped the switch that lets it show up on the calendar. Most other events should show up as well, but there may be a few here and there that don't show up.
This could be because we want the contents to be a surprise, or it could be because we just haven't gotten the updated schedule into the build yet. Or because of a legit bug in the calendar display, but I haven't seen one like that in a while.

scathias

Just a reminder that the item Elminster's Lunchbox is not correctly dropping the Grand Summer versions of squash soup, caprese, and watermelon sorbet as the tooltip states should drop. Instead it drops just the normal version of those food items.
Link to the bug report

izwor

Good changes to PoM. I was avoiding it, because of near impossible gold result.

izwor

While we are at bug reprts.

There is very annoying bug for TR class, it's in a game for a very long time.
Stealth bar is stuck when character dies under effect of stealth replenish skill, e.g. Lurkers Assault.

How to reproduce it?:
Press TAB to go Stealth, activate Lurkers Assault, die while effect is active.
Best to try it on dragons in Well of Dragons or Stronghold.

urabask

scathias said:

Just a reminder that the item Elminster's Lunchbox is not correctly dropping the Grand Summer versions of squash soup, caprese, and watermelon sorbet as the tooltip states should drop. Instead it drops just the normal version of those food items.
Link to the bug report

It probably got its tooltip updated early by accident. I really doubt they'd add grand versions of those items before having them debut in the summer festival.

beckylunatic

urabask said:

scathias said:

Just a reminder that the item Elminster's Lunchbox is not correctly dropping the Grand Summer versions of squash soup, caprese, and watermelon sorbet as the tooltip states should drop. Instead it drops just the normal version of those food items.
Link to the bug report

It probably got its tooltip updated early by accident. I really doubt they'd add grand versions of those items before having them debut in the summer festival.

It is indeed extremely likely that the lunchbox was updated with its native event, but the foods within it won't all be updated until their native event.

ulpian

What means "added after NW.62.20160613a.3"?This patch will be installed this week or next after NW.62.20160613a.3?

terramak

It means "These notes are new to the NW.62.20160613a.4 build, compared to the previous Preview build which was NW.62.20160613a.3." I expect that the .4 build will be the one that goes live next patch.

two30

The following companions have still lost the Sword Coast Adventures dice in the .4 build:

• Archmage's Apprentice
  
• Crab
  
• Dedicated Squire
  
• Goat
  
• Green Slime
  
• Moonshae Druid
  
• Renegade Evoker
  
• Renegade Illusionist
  
• Skeleton
  
• Slyblade Kobold
  
• Snowy Fawn
  
• Sprite
  
• Storm Rider
  
• Swashbuckler
  
• Sylph
  
• Tomb Spider
  
• Vicious Dire Wolf
  
• War Dog
  
• Water Archon
  
• Wayward Wizard
  
• Wererat Thief
  
• Werewolf
  
• Wild Hunt Rider
  
• Will-O'-Wisp
  
• Wolf
  
• Young Yeti
  
• Zhentarim Warlock
  

There may be others.

terramak

urabask said:

scathias said:

Just a reminder that the item Elminster's Lunchbox is not correctly dropping the Grand Summer versions of squash soup, caprese, and watermelon sorbet as the tooltip states should drop. Instead it drops just the normal version of those food items.
Link to the bug report

It probably got its tooltip updated early by accident. I really doubt they'd add grand versions of those items before having them debut in the summer festival.

Just looked at the tooltip with someone and cross-referenced an external wiki. It's been this way for a long while; the Grand Summer Caprese, Grand Summer Squash Soup, and Grand Watermelon Sorbet items don't actually exist (and haven't been added for this year's Summer Festival).

I'll pop this into our internal database. Thanks for the report.

Now I really want watermelon sorbet.

terramak

two30 said:

The following companions have still lost the Sword Coast Adventures dice in the .4 build:

• Archmage's Apprentice
  
• Crab
  
• Dedicated Squire
  
• Goat
  
• Green Slime
  
• Moonshae Druid
  
• Renegade Evoker
  
• Renegade Illusionist
  
• Skeleton
  
• Slyblade Kobold
  
• Snowy Fawn
  
• Sprite
  
• Storm Rider
  
• Swashbuckler
  
• Sylph
  
• Tomb Spider
  
• Vicious Dire Wolf
  
• War Dog
  
• Water Archon
  
• Wayward Wizard
  
• Wererat Thief
  
• Werewolf
  
• Wild Hunt Rider
  
• Will-O'-Wisp
  
• Wolf
  
• Young Yeti
  
• Zhentarim Warlock
  

There may be others.

Thanks for the follow-up. Internal testing suggests this is only a tooltip issue, not a functionality issue, but I'll double-check shortly.

Edit: Changed "in-game" to "functionality"

two30

terramak said:

Thanks for the follow-up. Internal testing suggests this is only a tooltip issue, not a functionality issue, but I'll double-check shortly.

Oh, good. Thanks. The players can't access the preview Gateway anymore, so all we have as guidance are the tooltips.

lewstelamon01

@terramak I know that this is a wee bit off topic, but is there any word on what is causing heroic-level mobs (silver borders around HP bars) to spawn in areas where there is currently NO Heroic Encounter at that time? (I'm looking at you specifically, Fiery Pit, although there may be others.) It's frustrating as the Nine to be fighting a weaker mob and two heroics ambush you out of nowhere.

I personally think it may be a matter of mobs not despawning properly at the end of an HE and/or the spawn area being set too wide, but that's just my two copper.

hustin1

lewstelamon01 said:

@terramak I know that this is a wee bit off topic, but is there any word on what is causing heroic-level mobs (silver borders around HP bars) to spawn in areas where there is currently NO Heroic Encounter at that time? (I'm looking at you specifically, Fiery Pit, although there may be others.) It's frustrating as the Nine to be fighting a weaker mob and two heroics ambush you out of nowhere.

I personally think it may be a matter of mobs not despawning properly at the end of an HE and/or the spawn area being set too wide, but that's just my two copper.

It's definitely a pernicious problem. I couldn't count the times I've seen HE-difficulty enemies in places where there is *never* an HE (e.g. all along the hill where the hell hounds spawn). The only other zone where I've seen this phenomenon, strangely enough, is in Twilight Tor: it was very common this past winter to see HE-difficulty demons out on the ice.

@terramak, I remember that you posted earlier that you were having trouble reproducing the problem. Maybe testing Twilight Tor would narrow down the potential causes.

beckylunatic

hustin1 said:

The only other zone where I've seen this phenomenon, strangely enough, is in Twilight Tor: it was very common this past winter to see HE-difficulty demons out on the ice.

Icewind Pass has it a great deal, but not consistently in the same location, except for the one group of barbarians by one of the torches on the road. Other affected mobs could be anywhere.

sorce

beckylunatic said:

hustin1 said:

The only other zone where I've seen this phenomenon, strangely enough, is in Twilight Tor: it was very common this past winter to see HE-difficulty demons out on the ice.

Icewind Pass has it a great deal, but not consistently in the same location, except for the one group of barbarians by one of the torches on the road. Other affected mobs could be anywhere.

I find that the TT NPCs in the PVP area in the Pass will be half HE versions, half standard. Bother during a BID and outside of BID as well.

terramak

Thanks for the additional info on the buffed critters spawning. It has indeed been a pain to reproduce, especially since they don't seem to spawn consistently.

Edit: Yeah, can't get 100% repro on this, but I was curious and put some extra time into trying to get it. Was able to get it to happen a couple times for the Winter Festival, may shed some light on the other locations.


The "Sword Coast Adventures dice don't appear in tooltips for certain companions" issue is unfortunately going to go live with this build. It's a perplexing one, but I can't reproduce it in an internal dev build, which suggests that the data's fine (as is SCA gameplay) and reinforces that it's a display issue only.

Edit: Pinpointed the difference in data between the Preview build and an internal dev build, and I'm now testing to make absolutely sure this doesn't affect SCA gameplay.
Test successful. Reproduced the dice disappearing in tooltips, but SCA gameplay was unaffected. Looks like I'm not eating those particular words today, haha.

torontodave

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

someonedies

@terramak
Do you have any update on this Hidden Daggers Encounter does not grant any Action Points?
it's been a half year since release. Please fix this.

terramak

someonedies said:

@terramak
Do you have any update on this Hidden Daggers Encounter does not grant any Action Points?
it's been a half year since release. Please fix this.

I'll make sure it's tracked internally, but I have no current update or ETA on a fix.

beckylunatic

Gateway's erroneous display of Zen-market event items for events that are not currently running grows ever-more ridiculous. We're up to 15 items that it isn't actually possible to buy. Medal of Heroism items now have a "placeholder" icon.

It's not gamebreaking, nor is it as disconcerting as the display bug with free items and a full inventory, but it is really messy.

rapo973

PoM doesn't work:
- Ward version: spawn rate too low. No gold even if the mobs are killed fast.
- Abyss: bugged. Already reported..

Depression mode on...

hustin1

FYI...I just bought a bunch of Major Labor Vouchers on the AH and my coffer won't let me deposit them (and it's nowhere near full).

terramak

@rapo973 and @defiantone99 : Thanks for the feedback on PoM. How close are you getting to Gold on your best attempts with these changes?

@hustin1 : If you don't mind, could you PM me with the name of the character who has these Major Labor Vouchers, and which bag slot you have them in (e.g. main backpack or extra bag 1-5)? That'll help me find out exactly which item is affected.

@beckylunatic : Both the Gateway and in-game Zen Market display issue regarding hidden items are in our bug database. Thank you for the reminder there.

@hustin1 , @kalina311 , @torontodave , and plenty of others: Featured Foundry projects are currently republishing. They should show up gradually as the process goes, but I checked in-game and about 29 were already showing up in Foundry Search. No ETA on edit yet, but we're hoping to start republishing non-featured projects early tomorrow (Probably before noon PDT, which is GMT -7). If that republish process looks promising, we'll likely then provisionally turn on edit mode for the more adventurous of authors.

That could happen anywhere from tomorrow to sometime late next week IF the wider republish goes well, and if / when that does happen, there's still the chance of us taking the authoring tools back down (for example, if we see a significant number of crashes either in editing or publishing).

Just remember - I cannot guarantee that we will turn Foundry edit on within the previously stated timeline. If we do it, it will be in a provisional manner until we're sure it's stable enough again.

terramak

Thanks for the detailed feedback! "Technically possible but not reasonable" is (usually) better than "Completely impossible," but it looks like we could stand to make additional tweaks if we want it to feel similar in difficulty to Throne.

torontodave

^5 thanks!

rapo973

terramak said:

@rapo973 and @defiantone99 : Thanks for the feedback on PoM. How close are you getting to Gold on your best attempts with these changes?

@terramak

Protect the Prophecy
We split in 2 two groups: the first one covering the west area, the second one covering the east area.
Fight off Demons: ~50% missing to achieve gold
Repair the Wards: ~20% missing to achieve gold
Defeat the Balor: no problem
The spawn rate is quite low during the first phase in particular. I suggest to increase the spawn rate or increase the progress rate for each group of mobs killed..or both if needed. Quite difficult to say more because the results depends on the overall "efficiency" of the group. In our case we had 4k DC, 4.2K GWF and other 2.8k+ dps players (another GWF, SW and a HR). Generally speaking, such a group should be able to achieve gold..but yes...it's very situational.

Demonic Incursion
Close Abyssal Ters: No problem and it worked as expected. We achieved gold 50 seconds in advance
Close More Abyssal Ters: BUGGED . We were closing the ters and fighting the mobs when suddenly the map shut down and we were moved to the next phase. Another player stated that the second phase takes into account the amount of time left from the previous phase. I didn't check that but it seems reasonable because we could play for more or less 1 minute. In few words the timer seems to be the source of the bug.
Defeat the Balor: no problem

ftryda

@terramak "Technically possible but not reasonable" is not necessarily a bad thing and is good for the game, however the rewards for gold completion should be noticeably greater and be possible with the general requirement of 3dps, 1 tank, 1 healer (even if that means the iLs likely have to be over 3k).

A team game should reward players that take the time to build strong characters and strong synergistic groups.

urabask

ftryda said:

@terramak "Technically possible but not reasonable" is not necessarily a bad thing and is good for the game, however the rewards for gold completion should be noticeably greater and be possible with the general requirement of 3dps, 1 tank, 1 healer (even if that means the iLs likely have to be over 3k).



A team game should reward players that take the time to build strong characters and strong synergistic groups.

They'd have to move the guaranteed +1 ring to silver though.

terramak

rapo973 said:

terramak said:

@rapo973 and @defiantone99 : Thanks for the feedback on PoM. How close are you getting to Gold on your best attempts with these changes?

@terramak

Protect the Prophecy
We split in 2 two groups: the first one covering the west area, the second one covering the east area.
Fight off Demons: ~50% missing to achieve gold
Repair the Wards: ~20% missing to achieve gold
Defeat the Balor: no problem
The spawn rate is quite low during the first phase in particular. I suggest to increase the spawn rate or increase the progress rate for each group of mobs killed..or both if needed. Quite difficult to say more because the results depends on the overall "efficiency" of the group. In our case we had 4k DC, 4.2K GWF and other 2.8k+ dps players (another GWF, SW and a HR). Generally speaking, such a group should be able to achieve gold..but yes...it's very situational.

Demonic Incursion
Close Abyssal Ters: No problem and it worked as expected. We achieved gold 50 seconds in advance
Close More Abyssal Ters: BUGGED . We were closing the ters and fighting the mobs when suddenly the map shut down and we were moved to the next phase. Another player stated that the second phase takes into account the amount of time left from the previous phase. I didn't check that but it seems reasonable because we could play for more or less 1 minute. In few words the timer seems to be the source of the bug.
Defeat the Balor: no problem

Loving the phase-by-phase breakdown!

And yeah, in my "technically possible but not reasonable" comment I used pretty soft terminology. Ultimately for this we expect a group with good gear and good coordination (both are somewhat subjective) to be able to Gold both PoM and Throne with some level of challenge. Though it can be fun and awesome to provide superplay opportunities and reward careful group and gear composition, it doesn't feel appropriate to require superplay level of skill in this location.