Shroud of Souls Preview Patch Notes: NW.80.20170515e.5 (Updated 5/31)

terramak · May 2017

Update 2017-05-31 ~16:10 - The .5 build has been pushed to NeverwinterPreview, and is our candidate for tomorrow. We'll continue to look into the issues raised in this thread! Updates are in light green text.

Content and Environment
River District

The lower-difficulty Heroic Encounters are now less likely to become stuck.

General

The Hunter Ranger tutorial once again properly states to use Shift to activate the shift power.
Several general issues observed in Sea of Moving Ice since Shroud of Souls release have been addressed.

Combat and Powers
General

Stationary enemy line and breath attacks no longer incorrectly turn to track the targeted player.

User Interface
Auction House

Auction House: More Stronghold items now properly show up in the appropriate Auction House category.

Guilds

The "Auto-Decline Alliance Invites" setting is now in the "Information" tab, rather than the "Alliance" settings, as the Alliance settings are only accessible while in an Alliance.

Loadouts

When swapping loadouts, items now swap into their replacements' inventory slots.

Vendors

After selling fish, vendors no longer incorrectly ask for stack counts for unstackable items.

Graphics and Visuals
General

Certain objects no longer appear to shrink into nothingness when the player character moves away from them.

Performance and Stability
General

Further changes have been made to support the investigation into the Device Removed crashes.
These changes may improve stability for players affected by these crashes, but we can't know for sure until they're seen by the affected players.

terramak · May 2017

@gwhryr - Regarding a comment in the prior thread, @beckylunatic is correct. We responded to both player feedback and some internal economy reviews, and as a result the AD vouchers are off the Siege rewards for the time being. There should still be some desirable vouchers dropping as part of the event, but I believe the sheer number of them has cooled down from the time we first added them.

It's totally possible I didn't include these in previous patch notes when they happened; my current patch note process doesn't really work the best with events, since I note changes as they happen rather than when the event is beginning - and sometimes, event changes slip through the cracks when I'm trying to keep the notes focused on the current build.

In addition, sometimes it makes sense not to include these changes - for example, when an event is receiving a major update that'd be better summarized as a feature (like Summer last year, with the addition of Sahha). This Siege voucher change isn't one of those cases, though, so I'll see if I can do better about that in the future.

sorce · May 2017

Terramak - are you able to have someone check if Manticore Mane and Manticore Hide are properly dropping from MSVA? Multiple runs of 10 people and no one has seen either drop (checked the ground, the rewards, and the chests).

dupeks · May 2017

confusedpoof said:
Terramak - are you able to have someone check if Manticore Mane and Manticore Hide are properly dropping from MSVA? Multiple runs of 10 people and no one has seen either drop (checked the ground, the rewards, and the chests).

I could have sworn that I save one of those drop for me in MSVA just a day or two ago. But now I'm not so sure, since I also know I ran FBI a couple times.

Still, I pretty strongly remember that it didn't come from a chest and instead appeared in the rewards box at the end of an encounter. So pretty strongly indicating MSVA.

But I don't always pay such close attention, so it's possible I'm mixing things up and got the drop from FBI

kreatyve · May 2017

@terramak will this build fix the lag and disconnect issues that started in the 5/25 patch? I am hoping that can be fixed before the weekend if possible. A lot of players are getting sudden disconnects.

beckylunatic · May 2017

So from the looks of things, @confusedpoof and I were both right about the rewards from Time Trial (tested) and probably My Only Enemy is Time (untested).

The quest reward UI indicates that you should receive a minor AD voucher, minor surplus voucher, and heroic shards of power, which are the original rewards for these quests. What you actually now get is a minor labor voucher instead of the AD voucher. I *think* this change dates to the 11b build, but am not certain. At any rate, whichever of the reward box tooltip or the reward itself needs to be fixed to be consistent. The changed reward is probably unproblematic provided it was intentional.

sorce · May 2017

I was getting Astral Diamonds voucher last time I ran my only Enemy is time - last night when I ran it (before the patch), I got a Labor voucher. So its relatively recent then.

bitt3rnightmar3 · May 2017

@terramak
Totally not Scientific Testing on Preview

I could jump up and down and walk in protectors enclave without crashing/having device removed errors
I walked across a stronghold instance and did not crash/have device removed errors.
I did the Portal to turen weekly and did not have device removed errors.

I crashed loading sharandar but the game appeared to freeze up so it wasn't a reportable crash.

So far I'm cautiously optimistic that something you've done did the trick to fix my device removed errors. I played for about 15 minutes in various zones and did not have a device removed error. I'll continue testing though to make sure, but so far it looks hopeful.

cforest · May 2017

@terramak

Lightwine ninja-nerf?

Level 70 (standing in PE):

Should be:

Testing scaled down to Level 30 in Neverdeath:

I'm not sure about other event food buffs.

Sorry, not a critical issue, but I got crates of this stuff

gwhryr · May 2017

terramak said:
@gwhryr - Regarding a comment in the prior thread, @beckylunatic is correct. We responded to both player feedback and some internal economy reviews, and as a result the AD vouchers are off the Siege rewards for the time being. There should still be some desirable vouchers dropping as part of the event, but I believe the sheer number of them has cooled down from the time we first added them.

It's totally possible I didn't include these in previous patch notes when they happened; my current patch note process doesn't really work the best with events, since I note changes as they happen rather than when the event is beginning - and sometimes, event changes slip through the cracks when I'm trying to keep the notes focused on the current build.

In addition, sometimes it makes sense not to include these changes - for example, when an event is receiving a major update that'd be better summarized as a feature (like Summer last year, with the addition of Sahha). This Siege voucher change isn't one of those cases, though, so I'll see if I can do better about that in the future.

thx a lot for your answer

bad news (my opinion) ..... you could adjust that a voucher can be chosen at tia for example

beckylunatic · May 2017

terramak said:
There should still be some desirable vouchers dropping as part of the event, but I believe the sheer number of them has cooled down from the time we first added them.

From somewhat limited engagement with the event thus far, only AD vouchers were outright removed, reducing total voucher types dropped by Siege from 8 to 7.

Influence vouchers seem to have had their drop rate increased dramatically, which to me is a welcome change.

darthtzarr · May 2017

nitocris83 said:
Most campfires that hadn't been allowing Loadout switching now properly do.

None of the campfires that I knew were broken before the patch were fixed. Before 2nd boss in Spellplague Caverns (master) being one of the worst cases

I also really want to point out that the loot tables for Spellplague Caverns (master) are severely troll, and should be looked at from the point that at most people will run this dungeon 3 times (at most) if this is all they get. I have maybe gotten some minor salvage (which is great), but it is far from guaranteed. The minimum rewards should at least justify part of the time spent there. I am specifically talking about the chest rewards. Obviously the drops directly from the bosses can be worthwhile, but then why are we making keys and opening the chests? PS: Sticking these good items in the chest does not solve the issue

Yeah maybe we ran it a bit slow, but these are not proper rewards for spending 45 minutes in one of the hardest dungeons in the game. I literally got better rewards from the first 5 or so minion enemies in the dungeon.

darthtzarr · May 2017

@terramak
Two rather serious looking issues I just found.

The fireballs in Lostmauth's Lair were firing in literally random directions. The angles were not confined to even pointing along the ground. The left path shot fireballs directly at the players as they entered the jumping puzzle instead of along the paths. The fireballs in the boss room were firing somewhat at random, but mostly when directly through the center, instead of outside it.
http://plays.tv/video/592888dd6e386fa5ba/fireballs-track-people
http://imgur.com/a/PVaxb
http://imgur.com/a/c3L9z

The second issue is that ALL Dragon Line Breath Attack has been changed to track the target player instead of sticking in place. It only sticks to the ground once the breath has started dealing damage. This can make the breath attack literally undodgable for some classes, not to mention it looks really funny.

Hati Tail Sweep also affected by this bug.
http://plays.tv/video/592887b67e591f030d/dragon-breath-tracking

Sorry friends whose voices I could not disable

terramak · May 2017

beckylunatic said:
So from the looks of things, @confusedpoof and I were both right about the rewards from Time Trial (tested) and probably My Only Enemy is Time (untested).

The quest reward UI indicates that you should receive a minor AD voucher, minor surplus voucher, and heroic shards of power, which are the original rewards for these quests. What you actually now get is a minor labor voucher instead of the AD voucher. I *think* this change dates to the 11b build, but am not certain. At any rate, whichever of the reward box tooltip or the reward itself needs to be fixed to be consistent. The changed reward is probably unproblematic provided it was intentional.

Did some investigation and confirmed this for My Only Enemy is Time (it looks like Time Trial and this one pull from the same reward pool and show the same tooltip for rewards). This was the same change that removed them from the Jubilee, and also appears to have swapped out AD for other vouchers on the Tiamat Weekly Cache, an Underdark repeatable campaign task, and certain others that give semi-random vouchers.

I can't say with certainty all of the quests / rewards that have been affected by the change, without spending an hour or two fully digging into this. I'll get the Stronghold Ranked Earnings tooltip fixed, though. (The Astral Diamonds voucher appears to have been swapped out in favor of a Labor voucher.)

Edit: Fix made internally, I'll want to get it through localization before I push it live so this one won't be too quick.

darthtzarr · May 2017

Just found another (or rather was reminded, it's not new). If you get a rank 8 enchant from FBI during 2x Enchants/Runestones, the double it placed in the options and you must choose between either your doubled enchant or your salvage.
(same chest)
http://imgur.com/a/ufoYO
http://imgur.com/a/iOFaK

terramak · May 2017

@darthtzarr - Thanks for all these reports! Getting them written up internally. Do you remember in which build (or at least what date, and on Live or Preview) you first saw the dragon breath line tracking and the Lostmauth fireball issues?

beckylunatic · May 2017

relevant

https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1231489/change-to-elol

darthtzarr · May 2017

@terramak Live Server, first time I saw the dragon/hati/fireball tracking issues.

FBI Double Enchants issue has been since as long as I can remember.

Spellplague Caverns (Master) Campfires as long as I can remember

bitt3rnightmar3 · May 2017

@terramak I just spent 1 hr in preview and did some stuff without crashing. Looks like my problem is fixed

terramak · May 2017

@bitt3rnightmar3 - Holy crud, I'm happy to hear! Still extremely wary, of course, especially given that client hang in Sharandar - I've notified folks about that one just in case. Regardless, if we're out of the woods on this one I'll be super relieved. Thanks so much for the follow-up.

@darthtzarr - Understood, thank you very much!
UPDATE: Enemies rotating when they shouldn't: Written up internally, managed to catch someone who could fix it before they left for the day. If the fix passes QA, I'm crossing my fingers for this to be in a build next week. (As always, build dates subject to change.)
Note that I believe that this is the same issue across all enemies who have line attacks, as well as the statues shooting fireballs in eLoL. We'll see in test (and at worst, when it goes to Preview).

Rank 8 Enchantment in "choice" rewards: Written up internally - likely to be medium or lower priority.
Broken campfires: I reopened that internal report. Thanks again!

@cforest - I'll look into the Lightwine buff changes.
UPDATE: Verified, seems to be a side effect of the item level update. I've let folks know and have written it up internally. This also may affect the Adorable Pocket Pet's Action Point and Regen bonuses, and Vintage Lightwine.

@confusedpoof - I'll look into the Manticore Hide and Manticore Mane MSva drops.
UPDATE: They were originally added as a potential drop to the end chest with the release of Shroud of Souls, and the rewards I'm looking at haven't changed since. The drop rate is low enough that your observation is within expectations. (I could be misinterpreting the data, though, as this is my first time looking through this particular set. So please let me know if further attempts make my findings seem inaccurate.)

@kreatyve - This one will have the issue that was causing disconnects (a map crash was exposed to a fix by Scourge Warlock's Lesser Curse power). It was hotfixed on the live shard yesterday afternoon, but it took a while for the hotfix to get to most game servers. There may be a few lingering maps left, but if they crash they'll be replaced by working ones.

In short: The disconnect issue should be hotfixed on Live, but still broken on Preview. Please let me know if you observe differently.

EDIT: Various edits over time, to improve readability / clarity.

dmcewen · May 2017

@terramak the HR archer capstone feat predator subject to the 200% effectiveness cap, essentially making it completely useless in most group. Is there any way this feat could be change from a 50% debuff to a damage bonus of some kind? The archery tree is really suffering due to the capstone feat.

kreatyve · May 2017

@terramak I did notice it was a lot more stable today, so thank you for that. Someone may want to take a look at Fireballs and other such NPC powers... There are some interesting things going on in eLoL.

Edit: I should have read the other replies in the thread, looks like someone already reported it to you.

lowjohn · May 2017

darthtzarr said:
Just found another (or rather was reminded, it's not new). If you get a rank 8 enchant from FBI during 2x Enchants/Runestones, the double it placed in the options and you must choose between either your doubled enchant or your salvage.
(same chest)
http://imgur.com/a/ufoYO
http://imgur.com/a/iOFaK

This evening, on live, I got a R8 enchant in FBI and was required to "choose" the doubled R8. I had no other options, though, so I lost nothing.

darthtzarr · May 2017

lowjohn said:

darthtzarr said:
Just found another (or rather was reminded, it's not new). If you get a rank 8 enchant from FBI during 2x Enchants/Runestones, the double it placed in the options and you must choose between either your doubled enchant or your salvage.
(same chest)
http://imgur.com/a/ufoYO
http://imgur.com/a/iOFaK
This evening, on live, I got a R8 enchant in FBI and was required to "choose" the doubled R8. I had no other options, though, so I lost nothing.

I have seen that as well.

terramak · May 2017

Enchantment reward "choice": Confirmed and written up!

Edit: Lots of edits to my previous post too with various follow-ups.

sorce · May 2017

terramak said:
@confusedpoof - I'll look into the Manticore Hide and Manticore Mane MSva drops.
UPDATE: They were originally added as a potential drop to the end chest with the release of Shroud of Souls, and the rewards I'm looking at haven't changed since. The drop rate is low enough that your observation is within expectations. (I could be misinterpreting the data, though, as this is my first time looking through this particular set. So please let me know if further attempts make my findings seem inaccurate.)

So if they drop, it's from one of the three chests at the end that you use the campaign keys or Leg keys in - this leads me to think there is something bugged, as 3x10 chests per run, with multiple runs and no one has seen the drops at all. An observation of nothing dropping when I have my guild and alliance all saying no one has gotten anything from MSVA at all is leaning me to the side of it being bugged.

gankdalf · May 2017

darthtzarr said:

nitocris83 said:
Most campfires that hadn't been allowing Loadout switching now properly do.
None of the campfires that I knew were broken before the patch were fixed. Before 2nd boss in Spellplague Caverns (master) being one of the worst cases

I also really want to point out that the loot tables for Spellplague Caverns (master) are severely troll, and should be looked at from the point that at most people will run this dungeon 3 times (at most) if this is all they get. I have maybe gotten some minor salvage (which is great), but it is far from guaranteed. The minimum rewards should at least justify part of the time spent there. I am specifically talking about the chest rewards. Obviously the drops directly from the bosses can be worthwhile, but then why are we making keys and opening the chests? PS: Sticking these good items in the chest does not solve the issue

Yeah maybe we ran it a bit slow, but these are not proper rewards for spending 45 minutes in one of the hardest dungeons in the game. I literally got better rewards from the first 5 or so minion enemies in the dungeon.

+1 This is killing the game for me. I ran FBI total of 2 times. SP Ive ran 4 times. Not doing it anymore. Big waste of time and AD.

Im trying to get my friends to run SP so we can get Fartouched Residuum, but since its lagging like hell and bad rewards nobody wants to do it.

Please add Fartouched Residuum to MSVA..... Is so unfair compared to other classes an material that drop in dungeons that dont lag. Also for some reason, the materials needed for CW masterwork offhand/mainhand is ALWAYS more expensive compared to other classes like GF for example. It was the exact same thing last time.

Why hate CW? Also DC has more expensive weapons than the other classes. You can check the AH prices on the materials to see the difference. Either boost the droprate of Fartouched Residuum in SP or add it do a dungeon that is doable without the tremendous lag.

armadeonx · May 2017

Isn't it logical that a T3 dungeon should have better loot than a T2? If they give worse rewards than EToS then where's the motivation to even queue?

oggycz · May 2017

darthtzarr said:

nitocris83 said:
Most campfires that hadn't been allowing Loadout switching now properly do.
None of the campfires that I knew were broken before the patch were fixed. Before 2nd boss in Spellplague Caverns (master) being one of the worst cases

I also really want to point out that the loot tables for Spellplague Caverns (master) are severely troll, and should be looked at from the point that at most people will run this dungeon 3 times (at most) if this is all they get. I have maybe gotten some minor salvage (which is great), but it is far from guaranteed. The minimum rewards should at least justify part of the time spent there. I am specifically talking about the chest rewards. Obviously the drops directly from the bosses can be worthwhile, but then why are we making keys and opening the chests? PS: Sticking these good items in the chest does not solve the issue

Yeah maybe we ran it a bit slow, but these are not proper rewards for spending 45 minutes in one of the hardest dungeons in the game. I literally got better rewards from the first 5 or so minion enemies in the dungeon.

Exactly my reward from yesterday.

And 2xR5 enchant from second chest. Yay!

Shroud of Souls Preview Patch Notes: NW.80.20170515e.5 (Updated 5/31)

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