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First thoughts on Mod 17

1. This is a gripe that I know some won't care about, particularly those who keep up to date with the blogs etc. But can you start making all new campaign quests start at Knox? I knew from PC that you need to go see Kavatos on the top floor of the Yawning Portal, but there's nothing to tell you that. With a new campaign would it be so hard for a Convo to be attached to Knox that says, "Hey, have you heard the rumours? Go see XX at YY and find out more." Or an email... or just something?

2. The first day's quests are a bit limited. The info gathering tasks are simple enough and not terribly taxing and don't take very long, but on a day 1 campaign launch it just seems to... stop. The grind is obvious. Get 2 bits of info per day, get enough and open the new Expeditions, shower rinse repeat. It would have been nice if we could have completed at least one Expedition on day one before going into the two day cycle.

3. The new Expeditions are fine. I imagine they have been toned down from how they were initially on PC as I read a lot of horror stories about 23K+ toons getting slaughtered by mobs in their first encounter. I ran my 24K Rogue through a one rune version and found it no harder than a 1 rune ME. The short "boss lairs" took a bit longer, but were no more difficult in terms of survivability, I'll see how my lower IL toons fare later today.

4. New appearance system. It's great and all, but what I would also like to see is a way to quickly use the composite dye pack schemes that you have consumed. For instance, if I want to recreate the "Blessed Gold" scheme I have to do each tone manually, and it's a bit of a faff when you have a lot of colours to get the exact set. Or, even better, a way to save a couple of bespoke three tone schemes. This is a minor point and not at all an issue beyond a nice QoL touch that could be added.

5. I've not done enough on the new crafting stuff to form a proper opinion, but at first glance it seems like a decent start to getting the system to where it needs to be given the new level cap. As long as everything works and the new stuff has been added to Lady Begum's commission list, (I have no idea if this is the case or not.) it should be fine. There's nothing much I want or need in the new tasks, but they're useful to level up artisans for Mastercrafting.

Overall it does feel very "B Mod" which I thought we'd done with, but after the enormity of the work that went into M16 I can understand why this is largely a case of reusing recent and existing content with a new twist. (I do appreciate not having to find the Relics on the new expeditions...). I have no interest in PvP so am in no way qualified to comment on those changes. The Zok box RNG is better even if most of the companion gear is useless, I'm sure it will even out to getting something decent without having to open a hundred or more.

Overall, despite the lack of first day investment, it's a pretty good continuation of the Undermountain plot. I was never a big fan of Gith since they first landed in the Fiend Folio, (Ethereal and Astral Plane stuff was always a turn off for my tabletop players back then.) But they look good and the plot has been condensed (OK... simplified) enough to not make me want to just ignore it.
I would have liked the "View The Planet Toril From Space" bit would have had a bit more "viewing the planet". I really wanted to get down to that observation deck and have a good look out of that window..."

Comments

  • thefiresidecatthefiresidecat Member Posts: 4,486 Arc User
    they said this was a b mod early on but they were calling it mod 17 because they wanted to get out of the b mod confusion they'd seen in the past (or something silly like that) imo it's far worse to put the expectations of a whole new mod on a b mod.
  • ecrana#2080 ecrana Member Posts: 1,654 Arc User
    1 - I agree with you. While I knew what to do from watching some yt vids, I know a few people that started running m16 MEs because they didn't realize they had to go upstairs and talk to Kavatos to start the campaign. There's nothing worse than frustrating your customers from the first minute.

    2 - Again, 100% agree. Day 1 was a failure in my mind. I had a few people that came in and played, wrapped up the initial quests and said "That's it??? 15 minutes of play?!? I'm going back to xx game. See ya'll later!"

    3 - New expeditions are improved from the last mods by simply removing the need to pick up relics. Good choice there as your players are suffering from relic fatigue at this point.

    4 - I haven't even touched the system but already like your idea

    5 - I see a lot of additions but what's really the value in adding 100+ recipes if there are only 10 people might care about?
  • mordekai#1901 mordekai Member Posts: 1,598 Arc User
    One thing I'll do with the Crafting that ties in with the new Appearance system is to make a bunch of the new gear just to try as Appearance Library items, it's a cheap and easy way to level up Artisans.
  • fns2005fns2005 Member Posts: 350 Arc User
    Yup it was not clear where to go or who to talk to. Luckily I saw a glowy above Threestrings head under the Yawning Portal stairs to get things going. Then Kavatos... I was thinking River District - nope, had to return to Yawning Portal and follow the glow trail to the 3rd floor. There is also no clear instructions in the journal or quest structure explaining how the info gathering quests lead to the expeditions. Lots of lost people shouting in chat, "What do I do?"

    Yep day 1 of launch was a bust. Me and others I talked to were left saying, "That's it?..."

    Yay no relics!

    Appearance system seems nice and customizable, but there were some red x's on some of my items. It seems they can't be modified.. I'll have to look at further.. I do wish the Appearance tab at the top swapped places with Powers. Very annoying now tabbing over twice in dungeons to switch powers.

    I haven't messed with professions since M15 so not really a thing for me..

    Excited for pvp, but it hasn't caught on yet. Most people don't seem interested.
  • rickcase276rickcase276 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,404 Arc User
    If you have visuals disabled or a dragonborn(helm slot), then there will be slots that have red xs on them. You just have enable visuals and it will go away.
  • mordekai#1901 mordekai Member Posts: 1,598 Arc User
    edited October 2019
    Just started the new version of the beginners quests.

    I like the intro better than the original, it's quicker, easier and gets you into the campaign faster and more efficiently.

    Not sure why you didn't just have all of Sybella's stuff run from the new position in Knox's old spot.
    I get the thing about having the same NPC in different zones like with Makos and Celeste seemingly everywhere at once, but having Sybella essentially either side of the same door is a bit daft.
    And maybe change the conversation with the blind woman to "You wanted to speak with me" instead of "You wanted to SEE me", (not all my characters are sarcastic HAMSTER...).

    I'll update as I go...

    * update 1 - Upon completing Tower District and receiving the task "Trouble In The Ranks," you are told to "Talk to Sgt Knox at the Hall of Justice" - This needs updating.

    * update 2 - I do like the new appearance system, but it still feels like it could use a few upgrades. I would love, for instance, to be able to "Preview" items in the Workshop. So if I go to say "Armorsmithing" and select a piece of gear, I would like to be able to go to the icon, click it and not only see the stats, but have the usual "inspect" feature attached allowing us to see what said piece of gear looks like when it's in use. Apart from the improving of artisans, pretty much the ONLY reason I'm using these new 71-80 tasks is for Appearance Library assets. So it would be lovely if this could be made easier.
    * Running through the levelling process. I have no idea how much of the stuff in the periodic level up reward chests is standard and how much is due to the Neverember's Recruitment event, but the stuff you get is mega useful for a new player.
    * On the subject of the Recruitment event... I like it! VERY good rewards. I'm even... wait for it... running the AI quests in order to get all the reward tokens I can because in my head I've already spent 200.

    * Couple of Random Catches - The screen tip for the quest "Artifact Recovery" STILL offers the screen tip; "Go to Blackdagger Ruins" when you have completed that section and need to return to the Sage's Shop in Protector's Enclave. And some (if not all) of the zone based Dungeon Queue Entrance points still read "Requires 3 players" rather than the updated version of 5.
    Post edited by mordekai#1901 on
  • mordekai#1901 mordekai Member Posts: 1,598 Arc User
    Appearance system.
    2 issues.

    First - One thing that always bugged me about the appearance system that has carried over into the new system is the bloody light source.
    Trying to get a decent look at what a cloak looks like is really hard because even when you spin the toon, the light source moves with them so the back of the character is always on darkness. This applies to shields as well.

    Which brings me onto...

    Second - The appearance window could do with an option to hide a piece of gear so that you can check shirts and pants, and cloaks on shield wearers (etc) without having to go back into the main window, unequip the item that is blocking your view, and then go back into the appearance window to make the change.

    These should be fairly simple QoL changes that frankly should have been there from the outset.
  • mdarkangel#4696 mdarkangel Member Posts: 442 Arc User
    Something to add to your "Artifact Recovery" catches. After completing the quest but still in the Blackdagger Ruins area, the sidebar directs you to return to the quest starter (name escapes right now) in the Sage's Workshop. Once you enter Protector's Enclave the sidebar switches to direct you to "Go to Blackdagger Ruins", however, the quest path does lead you to the Sage's Workshop.
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