In QA
These items are in QA and should be a part of the next update.

Vendors and NPC’s

• The Jewelry and Clothing Pawnbrokers will be moving to the Marketplace Tent. Vendors selling non-magical consumable goods will take their place in the House shops.
• We will be correcting some of the (now) incorrect NPC dialogue following the recent relocation of several quest NPCs.
• NEW – Scrag the kobold will be fixed so that he can talk to more than one player at a time.

Items

• The variety of Bane/Greater Bane/Slaying arrows and bolts will be significantly increased. Additionally, we will be adding Bane and Greater Bane missiles to the loot tables for chests.
• Warforged Oil (Drink) will be significantly improved so that it is comparable in effectiveness to similar to non-oil drinks of equivalent cost.
• The Brooch of Waterbreathing will once again have a 90 second effect.
• Players will no longer find Slaying arrows that don’t have killable monsters associated with them.
• Hold Person scrolls will now be available for sale with the rest of the level 3 Arcane Scrolls.
• We are changing the description of some resistance items to help clarify stacking. For example “of resistance” items do not stack with items that give a bonus to a specific category of saves (i.e. will saves).
• There is the possibility that some items have been created that cast Fireshield. Fireshield has not been fully implemented into the game and does not return damage to enemies that attack a fireshielded character. These items will no longer be created, but Fireshield items already in existence will not be changed. Fireshield does Reduce damage from fire while it is in effect.
• Holy, Axiomatic, and Anarchic weapons no longer display the Immune message when a player of the correct alignment equips them.
• The Brooch of Shielding and Raktu’s Trifle will no longer display an alert icon for their Magic missile shielding effects.
• Any new Docents of Filtration will be properly identified as docents.
• Any new Thanatos Weave Robes will be properly identified as robes.

Quests

• NEW - We will be adding a rest shrine near the Black Heart Encampment in the Jungle of Khyber.
• NEW – When we made the recent adjustments to the difficulty of the kobolds in the Old Sully’s Grog quests, we neglected to adjust the level of the kobold in part 1. He will now be the same difficulty level as the other kobolds.

Combat

• We will be making some improvements to combat feedback for critical hits.
• The Guardian of the Seal of Shan-to-Kor will now be less likely to walk on top of people (float) during combat.
• We will be changing the tooltip description for the Power Attack feat to help clarify that this feat only applies to melee attacks. We will also be changing the language of several additional tooltips to help make sure their meaning is clear as well.

Monsters

• NEW - The Conjured Spiders in Euphonia's Challenge have had their AC Reduced. This should Reduce the amount of time it takes new players to take these spiders down.

Performance

• We are fixing a graphics memory leak that causes performance to severely degrade over time, eventually causing instability or crashes. This should also help alleviate “hitching.”
• Fixing a bug that sometimes causes players to crash while teleporting.
• We have added or corrected several focus orb images.

Under Development
These items are currently in development and are scheduled for the Twilight Forge Module or later.

Please note: this is just the first installment in the extremely lengthy list of fixes and changes that we are working on for the Twilight Forge Module. This is just the beginning.

UI Improvements

• NEW - Alerts for "Missing Spell Component" will now list what the missing component is.
• NEW - The /alias command is not working as intended and will be removed from the game.

General

• NEW - You will now be able to log out while incapacitated.
• NEW - You will no longer be able to be both exhausted and fatigued; exhaustion will remove and block fatigue.

Combat

• NEW - The display for your party member’s HP/SP bars will refresh more frequently.
• NEW - We are fixing a display issue where the damage over time component of Slicing Blow isn’t displaying properly (please note: the DOT is occurring properly, it just isn’t displaying properly.).

Enhancements

• NEW - Warforged with Improved Fortification will no longer be healed, even if they have taken the "Healer's Friend" enhancement.

Items

• NEW - We are fixing a display error in the description text for mithril armor where the text states that mithril armor is a medium armor instead of a light armor. This was a text error only and will not change performance.

Spells

• NEW - Melf’s Acid Arrow is having its look and effects changed so that it appears bigger and brighter.
• NEW - We are fixing an issue where if you’ve been hit by multiple blindness spells, all of the spells would end as soon as the first spell expiRed. Now your full sight won’t be restoRed until the final blindness effect has ended.
• NEW - The "doom" spell will now properly give you a -2 to your attack rolls (as per D&D rules).
• NEW - Having the benefit "Improved Heightening" will no longer give a discount to spells that are already maximum level.
• NEW - The poison spell will now show immunity effects if cast on an immune target.
• NEW - When you resist a spell due to an item of spell resistance, it will now send feedback to the combat chat tab.

Blocking DR Clarifications

Since there's some confusion about blocking DR:

When blocking, you get the following sources of DR:1) a sliding scale for being smart enough to block; with shield in hand it's (your BAB/2)+2, so a 10th level fighter is getting 7 points, while a 1st level with nothing in his left hand is getting +1.

2) the amount for the shield type; 1 for buckler/light, 2 for heavy, 4 for tower

3) the enhancement bonus on the shield; 1 DR for every +

4) +3 for shield mastery

5) +3 for improved shield mastery

All of this layers on top of other DR you might have (the attack first hits your shield, and then hits your axeblock armor or barbarian DR or warforged DR or whatever). It's possible I'm missing some other sources of blocking DR, but this should be the normal set.

So a level 10 fighter with a tower shield +5 and both feats is getting 22DR; add in a few more from other sources and you can indeed have some fairly hefty enemies bouncing off of your shield.

The shield mastery and improved shield mastery bonuses seem small (+3 versus the +9 you're getting from a tower shield +5), but they're often going to be the difference between someone hurting you a bit with each blow and being completely ineffective -- if a monster hits you for around 28 points of damage, then 22DR with the feats means you're taking 6 points of damage per hit, while you'd be taking 12 points of damage per hit without the feat and thus dying twice as fast. If they're only averaging around 20 per hit, then that 22 DR makes you invulnerable unless they crit or roll high on damage, while a 16 would leave them still nibbling you a bit on every hit. Of course, if someone hits you for 100 points at a time, you're toast either way...

Module 2 is going to have some extra information in the combat chat window, including how much damage got absorbed by your DR, which should help make this easier to see.

Player Screenshot Poll - 5/26/06

Have a look at the screenshots this week and vote for the one you like best. At the end of the week we will tally the votes and announce the winning screenshot.

(click any image to see the full size screenshot)

Entry 1

Entry 2

Entry 3

Entry 4

Entry 5

Pick your favorite screenshot and head over to the DDO forums to PLACE YOUR VOTE

WoW Stratics is proud to bring you our first SCREENSHOT CAPTION CONTEST!

We have selected four screenshots and are ready for YOU to add your funny caption to it. How easy can that be?

The entries can be submitted today May 28^th until June 11^th, then the voting will begin!

Prizes include Hats, T-Shirts and Mousepads! So what are you waiting for? Head on over and enter today!

Please make sure you read our contest rules though before entering.

GOOD LUCK!

We have several new lines of enhancements for arcane spellcasters, designed to help them specialize in specific types of spells. With these new enhancements, casters can score spell criticals on damaging spells, similar to the critical hits that the sword-swingers get when they get lucky on an attack. Each enhancement is specific to one energy type, and gives you a percentage chance to score a critical, and a multiplier to damage. For example, a sorcerer with the enhancement “Lineage of Force 3” has a 15% chance of scoring 50% extra damage on their magic missiles; if he prefers to use fireballs he could instead take “Lineage of Deadly Fire” which only has a 3% chance of scoring a crit, but will do triple damage when it does.

All game servers will be down on Wednesday, May 24 for maintenance. Downtime is scheduled for one hour from 11AM to 12PM Eastern.

Please join us on Thursday, May 25th, for a House of Commons with the developers of Horizons at 5pm PsT / 8pm EsT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

Topic will be on recent changes (staff, ARoP, Lairs, Confectioner, PSB Quest, etc). and the Expansion.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
irc.epaxsys.net port 6668, USA - Colorado

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

General chat relating to Horizons will take place before, during, and after the chat in room #horizons. We hope to see you there!

Hello,

When it rains it pours! The primary Stratics web server experienced a hardware failure this morning and new equipment had to be purchased and installed. Everything appears to be running fine now.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Regards,

Jhariden
Network Director

Weekly Development Activities (May 22, 2006)

Hello everybody! This week we would like to start a new feature entitled “Weekly Development Activities.” The goal is to give you solid expectations on what you can expect to see in future updates.

In the beginning. as we get up to speed, we might not have an update every week, but our ultimate goal is to do a weekly update. We will also be expanding the update to include not only what you might expect to see in the next update, but also some of what’s on tap for the next module and future updates.

In QA
These items are in QA and should be a part of the next update.

Vendors and NPC’s

• The Jewelry and Clothing Pawnbrokers will be moving to the Marketplace Tent. Vendors selling non-magical consumable goods will take their place in the House shops.
• We will be correcting some of the (now) incorrect NPC dialogue following the recent relocation of several quest NPCs.

Items

• The variety of Bane/Greater Bane/Slaying arrows and bolts will be significantly increased. Additionally, we will be adding Bane and
• Greater Bane missiles to the loot tables for chests.Warforged Oil (Drink) will be significantly improved so that it is comparable in effectiveness to similar to non-oil drinks of equivalent cost.
• The Brooch of Waterbreathing will once again have a 90 second effect.
• Players will no longer find Slaying arrows that don’t have killable monsters associated with them.
• Hold Person scrolls will now be available for sale with the rest of the level 3 Arcane Scrolls.
• We are changing the description of some resistance items to help clarify stacking. For example “of resistance” items do not stack with items that give a bonus to a specific category of saves (i.e. will saves).
• There is the possibility that some items have been created that cast Fireshield. Fireshield has not been fully implemented into the game and does not return damage to enemies that attack a fireshielded character. These items will no longer be created, but Fireshield items already in existence will not be changed. Fireshield does reduce damage from fire while it is in effect.
• Holy, Axiomatic, and Anarchic weapons no longer display the Immune message when a player of the correct alignment equips them.
• The Brooch of Shielding and Raktu’s Trifle will no longer display an alert icon for their Magic missile shielding effects.
• Any new Docents of Filtration will be properly identified as docents.
• Any new Thanatos Weave Robes will be properly identified as robes.

Combat

• We will be making some improvements to combat feedback for critical hits.
• We will be changing the tooltip description for the Power Attack feat to help clarify that this feat only applies to melee attacks. We will also be changing the language of several additional tooltips to help make sure their meaning is clear as well.

Performance

• We are fixing a graphics memory leak that causes performance to severely degrade over time, eventually causing instability or crashes. This should also help alleviate “hitching.”
• Fixing a bug that sometimes causes players to crash while teleporting.
• We have added or corrected several focus orb images.

The 2006 Stratics Golden Cog Awards

The Golden Cogs, Stratics' annual E3 awards, return for their second year in the mix! This year we've pulled one of our awards, Best Sound, and added Most Innovative, Best Franchise, Best Original, Best Hardware, and Best Development Tool.

What we want to know is what do you think? We would love to hear your feedback regarding our selections for this year's Golden Cog awards.

Do you feel we have made a wrong choice for any particular award? Do you have your own opinion as to who should have won the Best Gameplay award or Best of Show? Then please feel free to let us know!

We have created a forum thread for our readers (you!) to offer their feedback. Please join in and offer your ideas and opinions, we'd love to hear from you!

The 2006 Golden Cog Awards

We have very strict requirements about what gets done with the personal information you submit to us, and will only allow third-parties to contact you if you opt-in for that contact when you register. And the partners we do have would never include the types of products and services that you are listing here.

__________________
Victor Wachter
Community Relations Manager
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™

Please someone with direct in-game experience with the feat let us know exactly what is happening with Precision, preferably with some good mathematical examples. I would like to know what is happening with different types of damage: sneak attack, Str modifiers, base weapon, extra damage from fire, pure good, holy, etc., crit damage, and so on.

Precision + Sneak Attack

The intended behavior of Precision+Sneak Attack:

Add up all the primary damage from the attack: the weapon's damage, enhancement bonus (the +1 if you have a +1 sword, for example), damage bonuses from feats and benefits (the +2 from weapon specialization, for example), favored enemy bonuses if you are a ranger hitting a favored enemy, sneak attack damage, strength bonus (including the extra if it's a 2-handed weapon), and the weapon's critical damage (the x2 or x3 or x4 from crits, _not_ an elemental bonus from a burst weapon). Multiply the result by 0.5 for precision being on. Then subtract the opponent's DR if any.

The only things not in this calculation are "the weapon does X extra damage of type Y", and "on a critical, the weapon does X extra damage" (for example, flaming weapons that do +d6 fire damage, or shocking burst weapons that do +d8 electrical damage on a crit). Those are added separately; they are not affected by the multiplier for precision, and they hit the target's damage resistance/reduction as a separate lump of damage.

So, yes, your sneak damage is supposed to be halved when precision is on.

The bug Tr0tsky shows in his nice screenshot:
I just checked this out, and it is a display bug; your combat log is correct about the total damage done and the floaty numbers are incorrect. What's happening is that you rolled a 2 for damage and a 12 for sneak damage, for a total of 14, which precision halved to 7. Unfortunately, the system that displays the damage done over the target's head said "total damage was 7, 12 of that was sneak, so clearly the original attack did -5", so it is showing a -5 and a 12, with the "-" gone because you can't possibly have done negative damage. This should be fixed for module 2.

So, you are actually better off with a larger weapon, because it is helping your damage, but since it's being halved it doesn't matter much at higher levels (by tenth level, the amount of sneak damage you are doing is large enough that the difference between two points of damage from a dagger and six from a greataxe is pretty small in comparison).. You are also better off with a weapon with a lot of extra damage from elemental or aligned damage, since that isn't being cut in half.

EQ2 Stratics House of Commons Developer Chat - May 18, 2006

Please join us on Thursday, May 18, 2006 for a Everquest II House of Commons at 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• irc.epaxsys.net port 6668, USA - Colorado

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may befound right here.

You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java Homepage.

General chat relating to EQII will take place before, during, and after the chat in room #everquest2. We hope to see you there!

Weekly Forum Roundup: 5/15/06
15-May-2006

Every Monday we will highlight certain threads from our forums. These threads will be helpful or generally positive threads started by our team or by the members of our community from the previous week. They will be fun items we wish to highlight, or good discussions that we feel the players would benefit from reading.

Weekly forum roundup

• Take a look at some of the future content that will be hitting DDO: Turbine Adds New Solo Content To Dungeons & Dragons Online™: Stormreach™

• A very hot topic on the DDO Forums lately has been PvP. Please direct all discussions regarding this issue to the PvP Discussion Forum

• The forums have been teeming with creativity lately. Stealthy&Wealthy asks for you to contribute more of your creations with DDO Limericks

• Continuing the spotlight on helpful guides, starfire_one offers A Guide to the Archery Ranger Scout

• If you haven't already played them or read them, the latest patch can be found here: Release Notes: May 10, 2006

• Ginetti asks you for the Best undead weapon you've seen so far? Contribute your best finds.

• Camendur has an interest in the best items you have bought from a Vendor. Add your best to Whats the best item you've bought from the Vendors?

If you come across a particularly helpful thread that you feel should be highlighted for others players to see, please send a Private Message to Eldorudo on the forums with a link to the thread.

In Testing: Bane and Slaying Arrows and Bolts

Background

Bane Arrows / Bane Bolts: A bane weapon excels at attacking one type or subtype of creature. Against that type of creature, the weapon's effective enhancement bonus is +2 better than its normal enhancement bonus and it deals an extra 2d6 points of damage against the foe.

Greater Bane Arrows / Greater Bane Bolts: A bane weapon excels at attacking one type or subtype of creature. Against that type of creature, the weapon's effective enhancement bonus is +4 better than its normal enhancement bonus and it deals an extra 3d6 points of damage against the foe. Please note: there is a known issue where the text description says that Greater Bane items have a +2 bonus instead of +4. This is a text error only and will be fixed for the Twilight Forge Module.

Slaying Arrows / Slaying Bolts: These arrows and bolts are keyed to specific types or subtypes of creatures. If they strike such a creature, the target must make a Difficulty Check 20 Fortitude save or die (or, in the case of nonliving targets, be destroyed) instantly.

Problem: Variety and Supply

Currently there are only a few types of Bane, Greater Bane, and Slaying arrows and bolts in the game (Reptilian Bane, Elemental Bane etc.). Additionally, these specialty missiles are hard to obtain, as they are a random reward from a limited number of Collectors.

Solution

We are increasing the variety of Bane/Greater Bane/Slaying arrows and bolts. We are adding Undead Bane, Ooze Bane, Construct Bane, and many many more.

We are also adding Bane/Greater Bane/Slaying arrows and bolts to the loot tables for chests. This should significantly increase the amount of bane missiles available on the market.

The Golden Cogs, Stratics' annual E3 awards, return for their second year in the mix! This year we've pulled one of our awards, Best Sound, and added Most Innovative, Best Franchise, Best Original, Best Hardware, and Best Development Tool. Without further adieu I give you the E3 2006 Awards - The Golden Cogs (check out the link for all the detail on why we chose each page):

• Best Persistent World: Seed
• Best Graphics: Aion
• Best Gameplay: Gods and Heroes
• Best Booth: Sony Online Entertainment
• Best Expansion: World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
• Biggest Surprise: Hero's Journey
• Most Innovative: EVE Online
• Best Franchise: Lord of the Rings Online
• Best Original: Tabula Rasa
• Best Hardware: PhysX
• Best Development Tool: HeroEngine
• Best of Show: Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

[ E3 2006 Awards - The Golden Cogs ]

News & Notes:

• Harbormaster Zin has been seen directing work crews in Aspirant’s Corner, and rumor has it that they have revealed some doorways to new adventures. With new neighbors in town, Kalimnal d’Kundarak has rented a new house, and the Harbormaster’s work has closed off the sewer entrance Edrun Faern was using to look for his wife. Luckily, Edrun was able to find another sewer hatch in Philosopher’s Row to continue his hunt for Arissa.
• After much debate, the Coin Lords have adjusted the experience given out in the Waterworks, Shan-to-kor, and Graverobber quests. There were many upset patrons in the harbor and market who were getting insufficient help in resolving their difficulties, and the Coin Lords felt that Harbormaster Zin and Wayfinder Dael would still be able to get enough help, while being more fair to the other citizens looking to the adventuring community for aid. In the same session, the Coin Lords granted the requests of many adventurers and citizens alike, and raised the experience for the Xorian Cipher, Haywire Foundry, Jungle of Khyber, Purgatory, Tharashk Arena, Tear of Dhakaan, and Vault of Night quests.
• A new wave of Kobolds has moved into the Wavecrest Inn’s caverns. These Runty Kobolds have less strength than the previous inhabitants, but they must be more wily to have pushed the first group out. They also may have slipped something to Jacoby Drexelhand, for the cleric seems to be out of sorts these days.
• In response to much consternation on the part of their pupils, the fighter trainers have held a workshop, and have found a better way to perform the Whirlwind attack. Whirlwind will now correctly apply weapon specials (i.e., elemental damage etc.) to all of the targets you hit and bonuses (such as the extra strength damage bonus for two handed weapons). Bonuses will now be applied on the last attack in the combat chain.
• The Healers of House Jorasco have been hard at work curing the Laryngitis afflicting the Bards in Stormreach. The Healers are pleased to announce that the Bards have been successfully healed, and their singing voices are back in order.
• The Coin Lords are pleased to announce that to help make life easier for those adventurers out there who like to have a lot of equipment and spells on hand, you will now be able to define a specific key binding for your first 50 shortcuts (the first 5 hot bars). The key binding will display on the shortcut, so you can quickly access any of your gear, loot, or abilities.

General

• Ransack Mechanic has been fixed - treasure will regenerate faster!
  • Fixed the timer for chest “ransacking” - it will now properly reset 1 week after the time you first looted the chest (the timer was broken, causing ransacking to reset much slower than intended.)
  • For this update everyone gets a one time “full reset” on ransacked chests.
  • Ransacking will now apply to quest rewards as well. As with chests, quest rewards will only be affected if you repeat the same quest an excessive number of times within a single week.
• Changed in-game messaging to reflect the difference between taking damage from falling, and taking damage when something has fallen onto you. Players should no longer take falling damage while running. This should eliminate “mysterious” falling damage.
• We have made some changes to help prevent the “Character still being saved” state.
• We have made some improvements to monster pathing.
• We have fixed several places where players could get stuck in the world.

UI Improvements

• The summary page of the spellbook in the character sheet now updates immediately when you acquire new spell slots upon leveling up. No more waiting for the system to recognize your new spells!
• Added a confirmation box to warn players that your ability scores will reset if you hit the Back button during character creation.
• The shortcut key being pressed is now highlighted.
• Chat windows will no longer snap to the bottom when new chat text comes in. Instead, the down arrow will blink to indicate unread chat messages are outside your viewable area.
• Fixed a bug that prevented scrolling up and down with the mousewheel when tooltips were open.

Combat

• Players will no longer accidentally kill each other with two weapon fighting and glancing blows.
• Per D&D rules, the manyshot feat no longer applies to crossbow combat.

Quests

• Xorian’s Cipher
  • Adjusted the treasure levels for several chests and added some rare item drops to certain chests.
  • Fewer skeletons will spawn in the split party encounter of Xorian Cipher.
  • Moved the location of a rest shrine.
• Ruins of Threnal
  • Find the Gate Chamber - This quest no longer requires a rogue. Also, a new rest shrine has been made available.
  • Library –
    • Fixed a problem where players could prevent themselves from advancing through the quest by using a switch too early.
    • Fixed a problem that was allowing players to kill the final boss before they had received the objective to kill the boss, effectively breaking the quest.
• The Depths of Despair
  • Fixed a chest that was frequently spawning without the random named monster it was suppose to appear with.
• Stormcleave Outpost
  • There are some new challenges to the Boss encounter (General Xantilar). Adventurers beware!
  • The portal for entry to General Xantilar is now a one-way ticket until he has been killed.
  • The crate collection optional quest is now able to be completed.
• Tharashk Arena
  • Levers have been added to the interiors of the monster ready rooms to prevent players from becoming trapped inside.
• Sorrowdusk Island (Justice for Grust)
  • Fixed a room where players could get trapped.
• Jungle of Khyber
  • Parties will no longer be permanently split by a closing door. The door will now reopen after a certain amount of time.
• Delera’s Tomb – The Missing Party
  • Delera will now correctly path through the doorway.
• Temple of Vol
  • Fixed a bug where players received the wrong alert text when approaching the inner sanctum.

Monsters

• Intelligent Skeletons who have Command Undead cast on them will now correctly perform a will save check.
• Shades in the Chamber of Insanity now deal more damage, have more hit points, and have a higher CR noted.
• Vault of Night Dungeon (VON quest part 5): The Rust Emperor will now correctly drop the required crystal key when playing this dungeon on the Hard or Elite setting.

Items

• Changed the description of tomes to properly reflect their usage. Characters only gain the benefit of the best “plus” tome read for each ability. These effects do not stack with each other.
• Fixed the description of Elixirs of Mnemonic Enhancement to properly reflect their effect (the add spell points).
• Fixed the Kundarak Shield of Warding to have the correct minimum level of 10.
• Warforged are now vulnerable to the Smiting and Slay Construct item effects.
• Redwillow treasure drops have been modified to make some high-value items drop less frequently.
• Added more detail to the descriptions of stability items, including the fact that they can be worn only by true neutral players.
• The Brooch of Shielding and Raktu’s Trifle now properly protects you from Magic Missiles as long as the item is equipped.

NPCs

• Salar Riptalon’s (Arcane Reagent Vendor - House Jorasco) vacation is over. His shop is once again open for business.

WESTWOOD, MA – May 10, 2006 – Turbine, Inc. announced today plans for a range of expanded player features and content, including more solo-friendly game play, to be included in the second content module for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™ (DDO), the hit game that has quickly become one of the fastest-growing MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) in North America. DDO is based on the world-renowned DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® brand franchise from Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).

Free to all current DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™ subscribers, the Twilight Forge module is slated for release in July and will include the new drow race, new content for players of all levels, an improved new player experience, and enhanced replayability. Following on the heels of the successful retail launch with over 300,000 units sold worldwide, the Twilight Forge module is the second in a series of planned updates that will provide new content and features for DDO. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro.

"The Twilight Forge module will offer new players an improved single player experience, and existing players will enjoy creating new drow characters and exploring lots of new dungeons," said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. "We are committed to delivering future DDO modules that include features that continue to expand the game, such as additional character levels and player-versus-player (PvP) battles."

Here is the first look at the Release Notes for the next update, currently scheduled for this Wednesday, May 10th. Full Release Notes will be posted on Wednesday.

News & Notes:

• Harbormaster Zin has been seen directing work crews in Aspirant’s Corner, and rumor has it that they have revealed some doorways to new adventures. With new neighbors in town, Kalimnal d’Kundarak has rented a new house, and the Harbormaster’s work has closed off the sewer entrance Edrun Faern was using to look for his wife. Luckily, Edrun was able to find another sewer hatch in Philosopher’s Row to continue his hunt for Arissa.
• A new wave of Kobolds has moved into the Wavecrest Inn’s caverns. These Runty Kobolds have less strength than the previous inhabitants, but they must be more wily to have pushed the first group out. They also may have slipped something to Jacoby Drexelhand, for the cleric seems to be out of sorts these days.
• In response to much consternation on the part of their pupils, the fighter trainers have held a workshop, and have found a better way to perform the Whirlwind attack. Whirlwind will now correctly apply weapon specials (i.e., elemental damage etc.) to all of the targets you hit and bonuses (such as the extra strength damage bonus for two handed weapons). Bonuses will now be applied on the last attack in the combat chain.
• The Healers of House Jorasco have been hard at work curing the Laryngitis afflicting the Bards in Stormreach. The Healers are pleased to announce that the Bards have been successfully healed, and their singing voices are back in order.
• The Coin Lords are pleased to announce that to help make life easier for those adventurers out there who like to have a lot of equipment and spells on hand, you will now be able to define a specific key binding for your first 50 shortcuts (the first 5 hot bars). The key binding will display on the shortcut, so you can quickly access any of your gear, loot, or abilities.

General

• Ransack Mechanic has been fixed - treasure will regenerate faster!
  • Fixed the timer for chest “ransacking” - it will now properly reset 1 week after the time you first looted the chest (the timer was broken, causing ransacking to reset much slower than intended.)
  • For this update everyone gets a one time “full reset” on ransacked chests.
• Changed in-game messaging to reflect the difference between taking damage from falling, and taking damage when something has fallen onto you. Players should no longer take falling damage while running. This should eliminate “mysterious” falling damage.
• We have made some changes to help prevent the “Character still being saved” state.
• We have made some improvements to monster pathing.
• We have fixed several places where players could get stuck in the world.

UI Improvements

• The summary page of the spellbook in the character sheet now updates immediately when you acquire new spell slots upon leveling up. No more waiting for the system to recognize your new spells!
• Added a confirmation box to warn players that your ability scores will reset if you hit the Back button during character creation.
• The shortcut key being pressed is now highlighted.
• Chat windows will no longer snap to the bottom when new chat text comes in. Instead, the down arrow will blink to indicate unread chat messages are outside your viewable area.
• Fixed a bug that prevented scrolling up and down with the mousewheel when tooltips were open.

Combat

• Players will no longer accidentally kill each other with two weapon fighting and glancing blows.
• Per D&D rules, the manyshot feat no longer applies to crossbow combat.

Quests

• Xorian’s Cipher
  • Adjusted the treasure levels for several chests and added some rare item drops to certain chests.
  • Fewer skeletons will spawn in the split party encounter of Xorian Cipher.
  • Moved the location of a rest shrine.
• Ruins of Threnal
  • Find the Gate Chamber - This quest no longer requires a rogue. Also, a new rest shrine has been made available.
  • Library –
    • Fixed a problem where players could prevent themselves from advancing through the quest by using a switch too early.
    • Fixed a problem that was allowing players to kill the final boss before they had received the objective to kill the boss, effectively breaking the quest.
• The Depths of Despair
  • Fixed a chest that was frequently spawning without the random named monster it was suppose to appear with.
• Stormcleave Outpost
  • There are some new challenges to the Boss encounter (General Xantilar). Adventurers beware!
  • The portal for entry to General Xantilar is now a one-way ticket until he has been killed.
  • The crate collection optional quest is now able to be completed.
• Tharashk Arena
  • Levers have been added to the interiors of the monster ready rooms to prevent players from becoming trapped inside.
• Sorrowdusk Island (Justice for Grust)
  • Fixed a room where players could get trapped.
• Jungle of Khyber
  • Parties will no longer be permanently split by a closing door. The door will now reopen after a certain amount of time.
• Delera’s Tomb – The Missing Party
  • Delera will now correctly path through the doorway.
• Temple of Vol
  • Fixed a bug where players received the wrong alert text when approaching the inner sanctum.

Monsters

• Intelligent Skeletons who have Command Undead cast on them will now correctly perform a will save check.
• Shades in the Chamber of Insanity now deal more damage, have more hit points, and have a higher CR noted.
• Vault of Night Dungeon (VON quest part 5): The Rust Emperor will now correctly drop the required crystal key when playing this dungeon on the Hard or Elite setting.

Items

• Changed the description of tomes to properly reflect their usage. Characters only gain the benefit of the best “plus” tome read for each ability. These effects do not stack with each other.
• Fixed the description of Elixirs of Mnemonic Enhancement to properly reflect their effect (the add spell points).
• Fixed the Kundarak Shield of Warding to have the correct minimum level of 10.
• Warforged are now vulnerable to the Smiting and Slay Construct item effects.
• Redwillow treasure drops have been modified to make some high-value items drop less frequently.
• Added more detail to the descriptions of stability items, including the fact that they can be worn only by true neutral players.
• The Brooch of Shielding and Raktu’s Trifle now properly protects you from Magic Missiles as long as the item is equipped.

NPCs

• Salar Riptalon’s (Arcane Reagent Vendor - House Jorasco) vacation is over. His shop is once again open for business.

E3 Stratics - We Are Massively Multiplayer at E3 2006

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is just around the corner and we here at Stratics are taking it by force! We've got 14 representatives storming the Los Angeles Convention Centre, an unprecedented number of meetings to attend, many an after-party to crash, and nearly 40 Massively Multiplayer Online Games to cover (and those are just the ones that have been announced). Without further adieu, we give you the source for all your E3 MMO coverage:

E3 Stratics - We Are Massively Multiplayer at E3 2006.

Keep your eyes peeled to E3 Stratics because the coverage promptly begins next week, and it will be coming hard and fast!

Sorcerer and Bard Spell Exchange - Part Two

Thanks for your input on the subject of implementing a spell exchange system for Sorcerers and Bards. The DDO world is ever changing with new spells being added and old spells being changed. This requires a flexible system for Bards and Sorcerers to exchange their spells to learn about new ones, adjust for game changes, and fix mistakes made in training. We know that many of you wanted the much more restrictive system used in the D&D rules, which works well within the relatively static world of D&D. Even so, I am sure there were cases when the ability of a live DM to allow exceptions was necessary.

Therefore we have decided to go with a system close to that originally posted, with some changes to address community feedback. First, we are going to allow only one spell exchange every three days. We do not want Sorcerers and Bards exchanging spells freely and we understand that gold cost alone is not an effective limiting factor for all characters. The actual time limit was a subject of some debate. We considered anywhere from a few hours to a week between exchanges, but settled on 3 days. That seemed to be a good compromise between forcing sorcerers and bards to make long term decisions for their spells and allowing them freedom to select multiple new spells in a timely fashion.

Secondly we decided to make the gold cost for a spell exchange dependent on both character level and spell level. It only costs 100gp for a Level 1 character to switch a level 1 spell but it would cost 50,000gp for a level 10 character to exchange a level 5 spell. Overall the gold costs are higher than the previously posted list for characters over level 5 and less for characters under level 5. Sorcerers and bards should give some serious thought to the spells they pick. Completely free, unlimited spell exchanges reduces that need.

We’re looking forward to your feedback on these adjustments to the issue.

Please join us on Thursday, May 18, 2006 for a Everquest II House of Commons at 4pm PsT / 7pm EsT in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• irc.epaxsys.net port 6668, USA - Colorado

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here.

You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java Homepage.

General chat relating to EQII will take place before, during, and after the chat in room #everquest2. We hope to see you there!

Player Screenshot Contest!
03-May-2006

We are excited to announce our weekly screenshot contest! Each week we will pick several player-submitted screenshots and post them up for you to vote on. The screenshot with the most votes at the end of the week will be declared the winner.

Do you have pictures of you and your friends in an epic battle or narrowly avoiding a deadly trap? Perhaps you found a particularly picturesque location in game, or were discussing your adventures with guild mates while relaxing in the local tavern? Here is your chance to show off your photography skills in the world of Eberron®.

Submission information:

• Send an email to DDOscreenshots@turbine.com with "DDO Player Screenshot" in the subject line.

• Include your forum name, in-game name, guild name (if any) and server name in the email. Your forum name and guild name (if any) will be displayed with the screenshot.

• All screenshots submitted should be in .jpg format, should not exceed 300k in size and resolution must be at least 1024 x 768.

• All screenshots are subject to the terms and conditions of Turbine's terms of service, code of conduct and end user license agreements governing Dungeons & Dragons Online™: Stormreach™.

Screenshot Hints:

• Go into options (ctrl+o), click the "Key Mapping" tab, scroll down until you see the option "Hide UI" in the "Interaction" menu and click it. The next key you press will map that key to the "Hide UI" option. We recommend using the F12 key.

• Once you have remapped the key, hide your UI.

• Press Ctrl+P to take screenshots (Screenshots, by default, will appear in the My Documents > Dungeons and Dragons Online folder).

• Select screenshots will be displayed on DDO.com in the future. We look forward to receiving your submissions!

*Submission of a screenshot constitutes your full and unconditional acknowledgement and agreement that Turbine (and/or its licensors) owns all right, title and interest in and to player-submitted screenshots and that participants will not receive any compensation for their submissions.

This just in from D&D Vault:

Quote:
Keith Baker, the creator of the Eberron world, has agreed to an interview with the D&D Vault Staff! If you have any questions you would like to have answered by Keith submit them here.

Deadline for question submission is Sunday May 7, 2006

Turbine, Inc. announced today that Keith Baker, the original creator of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Eberron® campaign setting, will pen additional storylines and works of fiction for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE™: Stormreach™ (DDO). The game is the first massively multiplayer online (MMO) roleplaying game based upon the iconic world of D&D®. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE: Stormreach, developed by Turbine and published by Atari, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATAR), launched in North America on February 28th and quickly became one of the fastest growing MMOs in North America. The property is under license from the Hasbro Properties Group, the intellectual property development arm of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS).

“Keith Baker is the creative genius behind Eberron, the setting for DDO. His fiction is sure to engage and entertain our players in the months to come,” said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “We are delighted to be working with him.”

A longtime fantasy devotee and game designer, Keith Baker’s breakthrough occurred when he entered a contest in 2002 held by Wizards of the Coast, maker of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS roleplaying game and a subsidiary of Hasbro. The contest sought an innovative concept for a new world in which fans could play DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Chosen from more than 11,000 submissions, Baker’s Eberron world won the contest and became Wizards of the Coast's setting for the third edition of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, as well as the setting for DDO. Baker also published his first novel, City of Towers, which released in February 2005, to critical acclaim.

Every Monday we will highlight certain threads from our forums. These threads will be helpful or generally positive threads started by our team or by the members of our community from the previous week. They will be fun items we wish to highlight, or good discussions that we feel the players would benefit from reading.

Weekly forum roundup

Polyformist has a very informative thread entitled Armor Class: The Book, Read It, Worship It, Know It.

Samera posted changes that will be appearing in an upcoming publish that will affect Bards and Sorcerers. In Testing: Sorcerer and Bard Spell Switching

Ascadia has put together a very nice class guide. If you are a Cleric, or wanting to create one, take a look at The Complete Guide To DDO Clerics - (Beta Draft 0.1) for some helpful information.

yojibalinese started a discussion: The Things I'd Love To See With Module 3! Weigh in with your wish list.

Ron has a very robust quest guide. Check out the Ultimate DDO Quest List for a thorough list of quests.

A new monster has been added to the monster compendium. Monster Profile: Storm Giant

Kurgen has started a Petition To Fix Uncanny Dodge. Weigh in with your opinion.