Ravenloft Preview Patch Notes: NW.100.20180430a.2

terramak · May 2018

Highlights

New Zone: Barovia
It all starts with Neverember's request to appease a noble patron, but you may soon find yourself in the realm of Barovia. Though the sun may never fully shine here, the day is still much safer than the night. Protect the village from the monsters in the mists, help the townsfolk regain hope, and prepare to face the ruler of the realm.

Official Feedback Thread: Barovia Zone
Official Feedback Thread: Ravenloft Instance Quests
Official Feedback Thread: Ravenloft Rewards
Official Feedback Thread: New Mounts in M14

New Campaign: Ravenloft
Advance through the storyline surrounding Barovia and gain three objects of power to prepare yourself to fight Strahd. A new set of four boons accompanies this campaign, along with a straightforward approach from the mists to Castle Ravenloft.

Official Feedback Thread: Ravenloft Campaign

New Dungeon: Castle Ravenloft
Once you have gained the necessary artifacts and assisted the townsfolk, you will be given the opportunity to enter Castle Ravenloft itself. Battle against hordes of vampires, waves of werewolves, and enjoy the ball! It will be your best opportunity to defeat Count Strahd von Zarovich.

Official feedback Thread: Castle Ravenloft

Reimagined Hunt Experience
The monsters in the mists are much cleverer than before. This time, the hunt will take you across Barovia! Bring a wanted poster to Madam Eva to choose your target, present up to three Tarokka cards for added challenges with added rewards, and embark on an instanced hunt alone or with your friends.

Official Feedback Thread: Ravenloft Monster Hunts

Astral Diamond Refinement Changes
Astral Diamonds are now more easily accessible across a player's entire account! The Shared Bank, accessible at the bank in Protector's Enclave, can now store Astral Diamonds. In addition, regardless of character, an account can refine up to 100,000 Astral Diamonds per day.

Official Feedback Thread: Astral Diamonds

Loot Experience Update
The Need / Greed prompt will now appear much less frequently, saving precious screen space. All items that are not Bind on Pickup, and would previously have made this prompt appear, will now cause all party members to auto-roll Need if they could use it, and Greed if they cannot.

Official Feedback Thread: Need/Greed Rolling

Updated Bonus RP Event
The Bonus RP event has been improved! Not only are more Refinement Points awarded at a time, players may also spend Astral Diamonds to boost their RP drop rates even further, up to five times the normal rate. In addition, players now receive bonus rewards for reaching certain milestones on the way to the event's cap!

Official Feedback Thread: Bonus RP Event Changes

Quest Path Improvements
Updates have been made to the algorithm that automatically selects which quest is tracked for the Quest Path. Players will still be able to override this through their Quest Journal or double-clicking on quests in the Quest Tracker, but the default should now be more intuitive.

Official Feedback Thread: Quest Path Prioritization and Party Update

Random Queues
Thanks to the feedback we've received, we've adjusted Random Queues to be more in-line with the desires of the community. The queue categories have been adjusted to match various bands of difficulty, regardless of type. The "once per day" bonuses have also been made once-per-account rather than once-per-character, and the value of those bonuses has increased.

Official Feedback Thread: Random Queues

Level Scaling Adjustments
The level scaling algorithm has been updated! When players are level-scaled up or down to the level of a dungeon, skirmish, or other content, this should bring the difficulty more in-line with the experience of players who engage in the content at level. In addition, Enchantments will also scale to a maximum rank depending on the content. This will make low-level dungeons less of a breeze for high-level players, but should still be fun.

Official Feedback Thread: Level Scaling Adjustments

Home Page Facelift
The first screen you see after loading into a map has been updated! It should now present plenty of information in a more visually appealing manner, and the information displayed will likely be more relevant to the interests of a wide variety of players. Included are a quick button to call up the Reward Claims Agent, information about two upcoming events, and playing tips that can change depending on progression.

Official Feedback Thread: Home Page Facelift

Release Notes

More detailed release notes coming soon!

Edit 2018-05-10 18:47 - Added Random Queues and Level Scaling Adjustments. Added links to Official Feedback Threads.
Edit 2018-05-11 18:53 - Added Home Page Facelift and link to Official Feedback Threads for both that feature and Quest Path Improvements.

adinosii · May 2018

sounds interestiing...really look forward to seeing this. just hope the hunts are better than the chult ones. that is, less rng on top of rng on top of rng on top of....

Chult hunts are painful...not fun. I hope the revised ones are better.

reeenatu · May 2018

Fae mama eu

pitshade · May 2018

I have 11 characters that can run RQ Epics. With the refining change, I won't be able to refine the AD from that. Can we have anti botting methods that don't hurt actual players?

Also, that Need/Greed thing is going to cause a LOT of drama in hunts.

putzboy78 · May 2018

i thought we were getting a rework of the scaling mechanic for mixed lvl content this mod?

gromovnipljesak · May 2018

pitshade said:
I have 11 characters that can run RQ Epics. With the refining change, I won't be able to refine the AD from that. Can we have anti botting methods that don't hurt actual players?

Also, that Need/Greed thing is going to cause a LOT of drama in hunts.

I think they're just removing it for small things like dino leather.

c3rb3r3 · May 2018

adinosii said:
sounds interestiing...really look forward to seeing this. just hope the hunts are better than the chult ones. that is, less rng on top of rng on top of rng on top of....

Chult hunts are painful...not fun. I hope the revised ones are better.

from what i have seen ravenloft hunt items are inferior

ravenskya · May 2018

I'm just thinking back to my old days of actually playing Ravenloft - I'm sorry but you don't hunt in Ravenloft - YOU ARE HUNTED.

Ravenloft isn't meant to be a smash and grab nuke all of the monsters everywhere kind of thing. There is STALKING, creeping, hiding and true hunting. Not standing for 10 hours in one spot waiting for the right zombie to spawn so that you can have a 1% chance of him dropping a gold tooth or some dumb HAMSTER.

This should have been thought out. When you walk in you should be marked by a monster that you CANT BEAT that you have to bob and weave and dodge to hide from in order to complete your tasks. Something chasing you that you can hit all day long with your GWF stick and still not beat because its after you and it's not natural and you are out of you element. Something hunting us.

Are you going to implement the madness?

or is this going to be Neverdeath graveyard part 2...

Don't ruin Ravenloft for me. I emailed WOTC a year and a half ago asking them to let you do a Ravenloft campaign. Don't F it up.

I'm not going to comment on the AD nerf - you guys just cant help yourselves

sw1tchstar · May 2018

As for the ad nerf... its nice that you're trying to make changes to help the general economy issues, however this change really will screw a lot of good decent honest and 'hard working' people, I do know some that run all of their randoms/day on far more than 3 characters, and thats how they make all their money, like to the point that they save and save and save for things like leg mounts.

Those folks play really hard for their funds, we've all been screwed over from these antibotter changes before, but this seems cruel. It is, however, nice that you are making it so peeps with 1 char will be able to refine more of their ad

If this is how you are trying to combat the backlog of zen that is now absolutely astronomically out of control, i dont think this is the way. A majority of the backlogged peeps are buying wards -- many to upgrade their own stuff, in case you havent noticed, since coalgate, the backlog has gotten worse and worse and this year is by far the worst ive ever seen. Bring back the tb wards or make them available in the wondrous bazaar (make them boa -- who cares) at least there would be something that we can use for ourselves which is what most of us want them for to begin with, and would also regulate the prices of wards since at the moment they're stupid expensive on the ah due to the backlog. A handful of people have most of the ad in this game -- they wont feel this one bit, but new players are going to get hit hard af.

gromovnipljesak#8234 said:

pitshade said:

Also, that Need/Greed thing is going to cause a LOT of drama in hunts.
I think they're just removing it for small things like dino leather.

its also only for need/greet loot roll, but also kinda going to be annoying to get a bunch of HAMSTER that you dont want into your already overflowing inventory... especially since now if you have too much in your inventory, you become 'that guy' and your group cant queue until you fix your inventory... i know... im 'that guy'

I have an organized chaos system

Additionally, those that really need those allosaur fangs and whatnot will now get kinda screwed because they will automatically have a lower rate of success... and when u get into those groups where that one guy has to pick up everything that drops... well prolly not going to be dropping into randoms anymore tbh, not that i do much now -- but it was kinda fun sometimes.

tom · May 2018

HAMSTER hunts... i have enough of that HAMSTER

sw1tchstar · May 2018

Ok well i would love to actually look at this preview but game is constantly crashing, tried verify, tried safe mode, looks like im SOL

brewald · May 2018

Feedback - Wyndrake Manor

Please, review the exterior design, don't want to say more, but I'm very desapointed.

c3rb3r3 · May 2018

terramak said:
Highlights
Updated Bonus RP Event
The Bonus RP event has been improved! Not only are more Refinement Points awarded at a time, players may also spend Astral Diamonds to boost their RP drop rates even further, up to five times the normal rate. In addition, players now receive bonus rewards for reaching certain milestones on the way to the event's cap!

Milestone 1 2k5 RP 1 Pres
Milestone 2 5k RP 1 Pres
Milestone 3 7.5k RP 1 Pres
Milestone 4 10k RP 1 Pres

MEH.

kreatyve · May 2018

Comments that were just about the AD Changes are being merged with the AD feedback thread. Please make sure to post your feedback in the appropriate feedback threads! Thank you!

sw1tchstar · May 2018

LOL Wyndrake Manor exterior, really guys? im forced to watch streams in lieu of actually seeing it for myself (because crashy crashy crashy for preview) .... but bravo *slow clap*

gromovnipljesak · May 2018

Ok, I know it's a subject to change, but the new sets seem really, REALLY underwhelming for DPS (the neck/waist/artifact). 5% debuff is basically nothing. Apocalypse set has potential, but at 5% debuff cap... nah. Set of the dead, good for supports maybe? Vistani set, not ideal either - 5% debuff again. I hope that's placeholder.

We'll see about the rest.

arcanjo86 · May 2018

100k/account daily,. really? me as a free to play player, had to stop doing daily random and start farming with only one char either tong/FBI/msp for salvage or expensive drops from it to sell on ah, with vip 12 wondorous bazaar discounts makes items not that expensive for the ammount of ad i could get weekly, i stopped playing when i start feeling like my stress level were increasing and i was getting frustrated myself because it was becoming more of a job instead of fun, the last time i had fun was when i played with my do on a tong run were i was the only dc, and we made it in 25min it was fun, now player just going to log in make their 100k ad and log off, if they arent high il/skilled player for queued content with good drop to sell on ah, new player will suffer greatly to keep up for new content, make sure you get a new founders pack for next module, im sure it will make success like mod 13, hunts in ravenloft instead of player being hunted by vampires/werewolfs??

Unknown · May 2018

This content has been removed.

omegarealities · May 2018

Who exactly will be running these random queues when they can only get rewards for running them once per account? Why should I run dungeons on my alts when they get nothing?

jaime4312 · May 2018

@terramak

Sir, is it possible to know if there are any Fury SW tweaks planned for mod 14 either by you, @balanced#2849 or another developer for that matter?

Even though mod 13 changes made templock a viable build for endgame content, the class main spec (fury) as per its role (damage dealer) still is behind other strikers in terms of dps as it has specific issues that hold it back from being comparable to the rest, such limitations (like long casting times, very long and slow dot damage from powers/procs and almost no self-buffs) need to be addressed, it was discussed on the SW official thread and Balanced said he was going to consider doing more tweaks after mod 13, even a few of them were mentioned in said thread.

It would be good to know whether Fury SW will get its much needed rework and if you guys have found out how to fix the t9g/cradle SW dps bug which is exploited when showing warlock dps in various types of social media and websites like youtube, said glitch gives a false feel of SW dps, it would be good to know whether you as developers are aware of it and if it has in any way made you refrain from tweaking Fury SW as it makes it look "okay" when it comes to damage.

athena · May 2018

the forest landscape is sub par when compared to chult jungle. I think you need to add more terrain to it like gullies and bolders and impassible areas, pits and such. and Lonelywood looks far superior in landscape detail to barovia. please improve.

shaleych · May 2018

when will you turn on the server? Lurker

polaris1986 · May 2018

Thank you!

an account can refine up to 100,000 Astral Diamonds per day.
Level Scaling Adjustments

ragequittingdc · May 2018

looking forward to this mod. not a fan of the AD change being based almost entirely on the pc economy, but I can live with it if it works as intended. hoping to see some real supernatural entities. something no amount of zerging or max ilvl will make short work of. I also can live with new sets not being automatically BiS for every dps. I have enough on my plate as is.

galopikus · May 2018

pitshade said:
I have 11 characters that can run RQ Epics. With the refining change, I won't be able to refine the AD from that. Can we have anti botting methods that don't hurt actual players?

Also, that Need/Greed thing is going to cause a LOT of drama in hunts.

you probably didn't read this part:

"Thanks to the feedback we've received, we've adjusted Random Queues to be more in-line with the desires of the community. The queue categories have been adjusted to match various bands of difficulty, regardless of type. The "once per day" bonuses have also been made once-per-account rather than once-per-character, and the value of those bonuses has increased."

That means you don't have to worry about how many characters you have anymore... because that's what the community desires.

Some ppl just really know how to ruin a game.

murphyva · May 2018

Looking forward to it.
But can we at least have an unbind option or bound to account items?
I can't support the upgrades for 5 characters with a 100K cap (an smop allready costs 75K for me and i can't farm these anywhere -> not counting dread ring since i only get emeralds) so i'll likely drop 2 alts and focus on the 3 that can contribute to my overal progression. but its a waste to throw away artifacts etc

nninjannoob · May 2018

The only thing I wanted to see was to correct the Killing Flames' minimum and maximum damage difference, the difference between the two is absurd...

terramak · May 2018

@q1fep I don't have an estimate for Lurker - After patching, we found a bug where all Cyrillic characters in our default font were not appearing, so we need to fix that before we can unlock Lurker.

majorcharvenak · May 2018

So is it safe to assume that with the edition of Castle Ravenloft, Tomb will be moved down into the Epic Random Queue catergory?

Edit - Disregard. Looking over the notes for the Queues now. I really need to learn how to read.

chilibombguzzler · May 2018

Hello, I didn't see any class balance notes and would like to know if any adjustments to PVE GF are coming? Thank you.

gromovnipljesak · May 2018

Man I can't wait till people start complaining bout the new SoD.