test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

OFFICIAL FEEDBACK THREAD: Castle Ravenloft

asterdahlasterdahl Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 1,258 Cryptic Developer

Castle Ravenloft

Greetings adventurers, this thread is for providing bug reports and feedback on the following topics:
  • The epic dungeon: Castle Ravenloft.
  • Difficulty of any encounters in the castle.
  • Queuing for and unlocking Castle Ravenloft.
Module 14: Ravenloft will see the addition of a new dungeon, Castle Ravenloft. Similar to previous epic dungeons that serve as the finale for campaign storylines, this dungeon will require some progress into the module's campaign before it can normally be accessed. On the preview server (and only on the preview server), players will be able to access the dungeon by purchasing a token from the wondrous bazaar's playtest tab. Castle Ravenloft has an item level requirement of 13,000 to enter.

Please keep in mind, as always: everything on preview is subject to change. There is no guarantee what you see on preview will translate directly when the module launches on the live server. A number of final adjustments are still being made to Castle Ravenloft, and there are a number of known issues. In particular, some sound effects and dialog may be missing or placeholder.

Thank you for taking the time to play on preview and provide feedback, see you in Barovia!

----

Formatting Your Feedback and Bugs

For posting feedback and bugs, please follow the following format to ensure your feedback and bugs are seen clearly and processed in a timely manner, thank you!

Type: Bug/Feedback (Please only choose one)
If you are listing a bug please have this text in RED, if you are posting an opinion or feedback please use CYAN. If you are replying to another user's post, or just engaging in general discussion, please do not color your posts, general discussion is welcome and we will read all of it, regardless of color! You can use BBCode to color your text:

<font color=cyan>This text will display in cyan.</font> <font color=red>This text will display in red.</font>

Examples:
Bug: When I pick up the sunsword and get on a mount, all my clothes disappear!

Feedback: The second boss is too easy!
«13

Comments

  • ibz4ez#9773 ibz4ez Member Posts: 117 Arc User
    Dungeon completed. Only took my group 3 hours. Hahahaha

    So lots of feedback. I was speaking to the lovely balanced as we went along and let him know some minor glitches we found along the way.

    For the first boss:
    The two other sisters, if very well timed, can be split inbetween two pillars. The wielder of the tome can then pull their aggro getting them stuck - can last as long as the whole first phase or as short as 1 minute.
    The tome's Left Click ability has a bit of a visual issue where it always fires at the coordinates of the sisters' initial position, so after they move it continues to fire at the position they were at previously.
    The Left Click ability can also be used on phase to, when held down, to block all of the ghostly sisters' abilities. Constaltly pulling their aggro and preventing them from doing anything.
    On a prior run we were unable to get through the door the first time. The rally your group button wasn't there but by exiting the
    Q group we were able to get in.

    Second boss:
    No issues as far as we were concerned except the boss didn't do all 4 pillars in his rotation - we thought he would do his whirly sword move for each pillar but he only did 3. This could also vary with the group's DPS reducing the number of pillars needed to complete the boss.

    On a side note can we take a second to congratulate whoever did the visuals for inside the castle? The place looks stunning.

    The last boss:
    No issues as of yet. Although the boss feels very One-Shot-ey. All his abilities are "bang your dead!" which, as a group, certainly kept us on our toes. However after a few of his rotations the one shot-ey-ness was feeling a little much. Would much rather see a new phase to that boss or at least a mix up of new powers after half HP.

    Overall:
    The first boss is by far the hardest for a new group. Learning the mechanics, deciding who to delegate said mechanics to whilst having no prior experience was certainly inducing rage from the female in the discord.
    Despite this we thought that the first boss did fit the vibe of the dungeon which is the Last boss putting you through these tests to see if you're worth his time so we'll call it a truce.
  • ibz4ez#9773 ibz4ez Member Posts: 117 Arc User
    Got the title to prove the dungeon is complete:

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iLH7CA2e-Q4PjZlNvP-mI6g9agadwL6s
  • archangelzorak01archangelzorak01 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 324 Arc User
    Ran this today with some of the Crusader officer's. We had a good time learning the fights. I was in charge of the book in the first fight. After a quick read of the abilities and a little testing I had those 2 sisters on lockdown without any difficulty. Its just a matter of using the powers you're given intelligently. Great design, I loved it.

    The dungeon environment was reminiscent of dungeons I remember fondly from older games. Really well done, kudos to the environment artists.

    We found a possible bug on the 2nd boss when he entered 'spin-mode' and killed our tank while KC was active and just stood there forever unwilling to target anyone still alive. Went back in for 'take 2' and completed the boss without issue, we drove him into 1 pillar then were able to burn him the rest of the way.

    Strahd was a great fight, the sun sword addition felt really unique, as Jarek got to run around pretending to be a gwoof. We were able to make sense of most of the mechanics on our first attempt and only lost 1 person. Our tank did get a bit manhandled, but nothing he won't be able to manage more readily after a little practice. It didn't help that our primary buffer/healer was wielding the Sun Sword, but we were having fun so whatevs.
    We defeated Strahd and took turns passing around the Sun Sword to see the abilities, collected our loot and took our leave.

    The continued increase in complexity and mechanics in boss fights is greatly appreciated from the veteran community. High-fives to the designers of these boss fights.

    All in all we really enjoyed our experience. Castle Ravenloft feels more like a 'real' dungeon in an MMO rather than a 10 minutes zerg'fest that Neverwinter has evolved into. This is a nice change of pace.

    I didn't receive any loot at all from the first 2 bosses though, and for a long'ish dungeon I think increasing the chance of loot should be looked into. Personally I would run CRavenloft just for the fun/challenge of it but the temptation to complete easier/shorter content for the same(or more) amount of salvage would exist. Then again I have a long history of not getting loot from bosses for lengthy periods of time so I may be an outlier of ill-luck.
    Neverwinter Module 6: The only MMO expansion in the history of MMO's to remove more content than it added.


  • shinytepigshinytepig Member Posts: 25 Arc User
    hmm, is it likely that CR (Castle Revenloft) would get a normal version similar to how Spellplague Caverns got a normal version and a master version?
    Maybe I was born with it or maybe I'm a frozen banana.... bad joke, I think so >:D mwahahaha
  • waagghboss#8361 waagghboss Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    The Action Point bar for the sunlightblade appears to reset in the last boss. is that working as intended? as of now, it seems nigh impossible to charge it up to avert the iminent death AoE in the last 30% of the boss.
  • bicyclops#3731 bicyclops Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 20 Cryptic Developer
    @archangelzorak01, thanks for the feedback. Glad you're digging the classic dungeon vibe.
  • asterdahlasterdahl Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 1,258 Cryptic Developer


    Second boss:
    No issues as far as we were concerned except the boss didn't do all 4 pillars in his rotation - we thought he would do his whirly sword move for each pillar but he only did 3. This could also vary with the group's DPS reducing the number of pillars needed to complete the boss.

    The mechanic you are describing is a soft enrage, so you are correct that the number you see is based on group DPS. Because group DPS in the game currently varies to such a wild degree, the number you see could vary dramatically. Also, the speed with which he enters his empowered mode and his overall health will likely be adjusted before the fight goes live.

    No issues as of yet. Although the boss feels very One-Shot-ey. All his abilities are "bang your dead!" which, as a group, certainly kept us on our toes. However after a few of his rotations the one shot-ey-ness was feeling a little much. Would much rather see a new phase to that boss or at least a mix up of new powers after half HP.

    There are distinct changes in the final boss's rotation with each transition between phases, including the introduction of new patterns of his existing attacks as well as one new attack that is added in the second phase. Regarding the degree to which his powers one-shot, this is again a bit difficult due to the dramatic difference in survivability from group to group. But we will continue to make adjustments based on data and feedback. If your group is struggling with all DPS focused powers from your support classes, try making some adjustments.

    hmm, is it likely that CR (Castle Revenloft) would get a normal version similar to how Spellplague Caverns got a normal version and a master version?

    There are no plans to release a normal version of Castle Ravenloft. In the case of Spellplague Caverns, it was released in two versions because the leveling version of the dungeon was actually an existing dungeon from before the Elemental Evil module that was being returned to the game as-is, whereas the epic dungeon version was an entire remake re-using only the environment and telling a new story.

    The Action Point bar for the sunlightblade appears to reset in the last boss. is that working as intended? as of now, it seems nigh impossible to charge it up to avert the iminent death AoE in the last 30% of the boss.

    There are currently some issues with the action point bar for the sunsword. Once they are fixed, they should appear in a future preview build's patch notes.

  • adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
    Is CR too easy?

    As I have said before, I think you got the difficulty of ToNG just right... farmable by BiS groups in 20 minutes...doable by decent groups in 40 minutes and a real challenge for undergeared and/or inexperienced groups.

    CR has higher IL requirements and should be harder, it does not seem to be...or at least groups seem in general to have an easier time than they had in ToNG on Preview.
    Hoping for improvements...
  • helric9helric9 Member Posts: 62 Arc User
    edited May 2018
    Took us 2 hours to finish it
    OP-GF-GWF-DCx2 all between 15k to 17k

    First boss :
    The most difficult one. Need some tries to handle it. But once we learned the book mechanics it's was fine.

    Second boss :
    Really too easy. It's very sad beacause when you see this guy for the first time, you expect to have to handle with a new old orcus 800k+ hits.
    Please give him some love and buff ! His disign is awesome.

    Last one :
    To be honest we don't exactly understood how the fight work, but it's was done after 3 tries.

    Maybe a little buff on trash mobs could be nice too.

    Conclusion:
    Finally we get back a true dungeon experience with more complexes mechanics.
    The atmosphere in the castel is really nice and we had the feeling to being in a big castel with several paths.
    I'll love in the futur to see fews others dungeons more bigger like was the old Castel Never.
    Maybe a big dungeons with fews wings with fews boss by wing, and a one chest at the end of each wing.
    I mean i prefere to do one big dungeon of 1h30 instead repeat the same one 3 times.

    GREAT JOB CONGRATULATIONS !!!


    On the last boss the Sunblade action points reset between phases.

    As you can read, english is not my mother tong, be understanding.
    Post edited by helric9 on
  • dupeksdupeks Member Posts: 1,789 Arc User
    Beautiful dungeon with lots of interesting mechanics.

    First Boss:
    Longest boss, since you are effectively down to a 4-person party. It will make for interesting coordinating who should take the book. But once book holder gets a sense of things, it's just a lot of HP to burn through. The rabid vengeance crowd at the third sister is pretty awesome.

    Second Boss:
    Very interesting mechanics and visuals. Once you figure out the mechanics, it can be a burn. Similar to what others are saying, it's a shame it isn't harder in some clever way (although just more HP to burn through isn't exactly fun).

    Final Boss:
    Using the sunsword requires planning again, and can completely screw things up if the wrong person picks it up. I'm not sure I actually understand the purpose of the sword yet. It's also a very chaotic fight where it's hard to tell what is important. Figuring out the wall push and letting him come to you took some trying. But eventually we got through it.

    Overall:
    A bit easier than I expected in a sub-optimal party (although we did have some guild boons). In a well-balanced party I could see this being only slightly longer than tomb.

    The mechanics are interesting, although reading about them in the lore journal and reading the tooltips is all kind of hard in the moment.

    The visuals are beautiful and have a great atmosphere. The enemies look inspired too, and I found myself surprised a couple times. Great job!

    Finished in about 1hr30 including multiple breaks,
    Party composition DC/DC/GF/GF/CW, ilvls 14k-17k


  • helric9helric9 Member Posts: 62 Arc User
    edited May 2018
    It's look like all groups feel the same, it's too easy. We have had a harder time on preview with msp or tong, but to be honest this one is less buggy too. But all in all maybe CR deserve a little buff. Specialy the trash mobs are way too easy if you compare to Fbi giants and their rain of rocks or the bands of mobs of msp. As i said second boss deserve a buff too, as tank i like to have to handle with large boss who hits like truck.
    Post edited by helric9 on
  • wickedduck22#9795 wickedduck22 Member Posts: 100 Arc User
    Did the dungeon first time in probably less than an hour since we were waiting 20 minutes for my friend to download the patch. First boss was confusing at first until we figured out what to do. Second boss was easy enough so we didn't have any time to see any special mechanics except for the spinning strike which trapped the gf onto the wall and everytime he tried using scroll he got one shotted. Third boss Cool concept but too many immunity phases 5 seconds in the fight he goes immune it just felt more annoying than challenging. Overall it's a nicely designed dungeon I like the new ideas and the concept of the dungeon but I wish you could use tarroka cards on it aswell to add multipliers for increased rewards.
  • ibz4ez#9773 ibz4ez Member Posts: 117 Arc User
    edited May 2018
    Part of my feedback for the feel about the dungeon's general "random one shots" was the last boss and his mechanics. After running the dungeon many more times I'd like to add a few more things.

    First Boss
    This boss is actually the hardest of all three but also the most fun/challenging. Why? Because you can understand the mechanics, the rotations are obvious and the addition of lure book that removes one class from your buffs/dps/tanking is a really genius idea.
    Compare that to the second boss and you feel a little underwhelmed. The boss is under-powered, has no real sense of developing as the fight continues - especially after a few runs it seems the boss is a little bit of a placeholder. I'd like to see some additional mechanics added to this boss fight, specifically the surviving sister - I'd like to have another swing with her in as part of the second boss fight rather than just watching her die in a cut-scene.

    The last Boss
    This boss seems like he has loads of rotations, mechanics and is very obviously a powerful dude. But my group and I, after many runs of the dungeon now, feel like we just haven't a clue what's going on.
    Where the boss takes someone into some parallel boss fight where they're taken and have to fight their friends seems like just a really unnecessary way to take another player out of the equation in the main room. I'd like to see some benefit from killing the ads in that room. Some form of buff you can get from killing your friends in there. Also I'd like to see the One-Shot nature of this dungeon be removed from that room 'cause at the moment we're calling it the scroll consuming room because that's all it does. And after you've run the dungeon a few times it really starts to take the p!ss how many scrolls are needed if you get taken by the boss and thrown in that other room - especially if it happens more than 2 times to the same player.
    - Revision of that is needed
    As for the second phase of the boss fight where he lifts you onto a vampiric platform. Cool artwork but he just does the same their as he does in the first phase of the boss fight. Please swap his powers out in that phase to new ones. As a suggestion why not spawn doppelgangers of the whole party during that phase and make the two groups face off against each other as the boss watches and fights as well. Would be much more interesting to watch as the group scrambles to kill it's mirror DC before that DC heals the boss too much.
    Also the general colour pallet used in the dungeon is very aesthetic and coordinated, however we feel like key ads, like the doppelgangers, should be coloured differently like they were in the first boss (bright purple glow).

  • adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
    I think people are comparing it to what ToNG felt like the first time...with a higher IL requirement it should feel harder, right?
    Hoping for improvements...
  • hawkeyelhawkeyel Member Posts: 389 Arc User
    lowjohn said:

    Worth noting that the people saying "feels too easy?" are 2-4K over the minimum requirement, and are in premade groups, and are the sort of players who play on Preview.

    It's not exactly a representative crowd is my general point.

    I very much agree with this. The more a players IL is over the set IL requirement of a dungeon then it should feel just like it does for those people . In the not so distant future it will be open to anyone that is of that level and they will have to face it . Forcing players to be far and beyond the stated requirement on each new thing they produce is a bad idea. If one really does want it to feel more difficult try running it at its stated IL .Problem solved.
  • lowjohnlowjohn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,061 Arc User
    My point was more that these are people who are going to have maxed out all of their boosts, be synergising well with each other, and tend to be better-per-IL than randos..... and then ALSO have more IL.

    You can get 15K without Bondings, with a Summoned companion. You will be *way* worse than a 15K with Bondings or a 15K with no Bondings and an Augment. You can be a 14K TR and be a strong DPS who regularly hits the top of Paingiver, or you can be a 14K TR who focuses on defensive stats who calls yourself a "tankster rogue" and focuses on gaining aggro, surviving it for a few seconds, then losing it by using stealth, instead of doing DPS. One of those is going to show up on Preview and try a new dungeon. The other is just going to random queue for it on Live and the rest of their party will need to adjust.

    I'm not saying "don't take 'this is too easy' as serious feedback". I'm just saying, look carefully at *who* is saying "this is too easy" and definitely run tests with suboptimal builds and marginal ILs, and just plain bad players. Anyone remember the time Strumslingr was "showing off" the first big DC changes on livestream but he never even once hit Tab because he had never played a DC before starting the stream and he didn't understand the Divine Power mechanic before *or after* the change he was "demoing"? That's probably a little too bad for a 13Ker who's doing the Barovia campaign, but I would definitely want to see what the experience was like with people playing less-familiar classes (or classes they're just bad at) to simulate the Rando With A Bad Build factor before reducing difficulty based on Preview-player feedback.

  • rickcase276rickcase276 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,404 Arc User
    Yes I would say run it with a group of say instigator GWF, Protector GF, Devo OP, Scoundrel TR and Archery HR all at or around ilevel 13k, and then see if the dungeon is too easy or not. Whether people like it or not, they do need to make certain that any combination of whatever the dungeon ilevel is, all classes or builds have a reasonable chance of completing said dungeon. That is the way to ensure a good experience for all people that play the game.
  • lowjohnlowjohn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,061 Arc User
    It's totally fair for "5 bad people who technically qualify" to fail 100% of the time.

    Even "3 bad people who technically qualify and two people who are half-decent" to fail.

    Requiring "5 basically okay people who know what they are doing" to get past the first boss would be fine, if the first boss had good drops.

    I just object when "4 good players who meet the minimum can't carry a trash player who TECHNICALLY meets the minimum but is just awful because they've deliberately picked the worst possible choices at every step and are actively working against their class strengths, to at least PARTIAL success that gets the 4 honest attempters partially paid".
  • lowjohnlowjohn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,061 Arc User
    Put another way: I want 4/5 competent-but-not-great peeps to be able to beat the first boss and get moderately paid for giving up at that point. I want 5/5 competent-but-not-amazing peeps who meet the minimum to be able to finish the dungeon with moderate luck.

    I'd *love* if there was a bonus reward tier for stomping the dungeon, or an enhanced difficulty option available on a button, for people who want a mega challenge and who get bonus rewards for doing it.
  • muminekm#3459 muminekm Member Posts: 248 Arc User
    lowjohn said:

    Put another way: I want 4/5 competent-but-not-great peeps to be able to beat the first boss and get moderately paid for giving up at that point. I want 5/5 competent-but-not-amazing peeps who meet the minimum to be able to finish the dungeon with moderate luck.

    I'd *love* if there was a bonus reward tier for stomping the dungeon, or an enhanced difficulty option available on a button, for people who want a mega challenge and who get bonus rewards for doing it.

    @wickedduck22#9795 idea with using Tarokka cards in dungeon would suit it best..if dungeon would be too easy for you then use some card to increase difficulty..but with better rewards of course.
  • helric9helric9 Member Posts: 62 Arc User
    edited May 2018


    @wickedduck22#9795 idea with using Tarokka cards in dungeon would suit it best..if dungeon would be too easy for you then use some card to increase difficulty..but with better rewards of course.

    Great idea who can make everyone happy !
    This idea is great, many players would like the possibility to increase difficulty for better rewards.
    Because if we are honest, we all know the difficulty of the endgame content is too easy for endgame players.
    As long as the end game content stays at 13k and the players at 18k balancing will be difficult.
    But anyway a love your idea !

  • kayclo2kayclo2 Member Posts: 49 Arc User
    Maybe is it possible to link the difficulty of the dungeon to the summary of the item level of the party?
    even an increase only in hp for all the enemy on dungeon might create a challenge "more friendly" for all type of player.
    The tarocca's idea for increase difficulty and reward is optimal.
  • vordaynvordayn Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,283 Arc User
    Yep, balancing out a dungeon for IL 13-18k players is gonna be difficult. Tiered difficulty dungeons with tiered rewards makes sense.
    Vordon CW        Vordayn DC        Axel Wolfric GWF        Logain SW        Gawyn GF        Galad OP        Aspen Darkfire HR        Min TR
  • cubestar156cubestar156 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 10 Arc User
    Best dungeon I've done so far.
This discussion has been closed.