Test Update #18 Feedback (Testers Only)

[Blackguard]

Post your feedback on <a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tup&message.id=94" target=_blank>Test Update #18</a> here. <div></div>

[EtoilePirate]

<div></div>I haven't had much time to play around with this patch yet (though I'm hoping to get a couple of hours before bed tonight), but the poison changes <i><b>really</b></i> concern me.   As a 53 Assassin, something like 40% of my DPS, on average, comes from Legendary player-made poisons.  Without that boost, I am (a) incapable of soloing at all effectively, and (b) useless in raids.I rely on a poison proc on my bow pull to solo.  I also rely on having poison proc on both my primary and off-hand weapons.  I don't know if it's possible to exaggerate just how much of an effect poison procs have on my class and ability.  Now, as I haven't had much testing time, it's entirely possible that I'm over-reacting, and when I get in there and start parsing tonight, I'll find that I'm as effective as ever.  But I'm really tired of having to rely on my Evac button in order to do solo writ-based level grinding, and this change makes me even warier.The changes to the assassin skills that have gotten patched in tonight -- the reduced timers -- are a good step towards helping a hard-to-play class.  I'm not saying we need all our timers dropped, like the (whiners) on the Assasisn board are.  But poison is pretty much the lifeblood of the class, and I don't want to lose it.  :-/<b>Edit, after some Actual Testing:</b>Poison on the bow pull is working as fine as ever.  However, missing the poison on the off-hand weapon really is hurting.  I just died to a blue mob that should have been easy to handle (a no-arrow lizardman scout near the Twin Tears), the whole time struck with the feeling that I couldn't put out the damage I needed to.  That's Bad.As for the rest: the Christmas decorations are garish and tacky and totally out of place and I adore them to bits!  but West Freeport has become a total slideshow.  Anything that can be done about the lag?<div></div><p>Message Edited by EtoilePB on <span class=date_text>12-10-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:02 AM</span>

[HanktheDwarf]

<div></div>So the Elfin Wonderland is broken.  After freeing the Lord, the other elf won't send me to the EW.  Hailing, she just says "Do you need to go back to the Wonderland?" and responding does nothing. Reading the book yields large blank pages (black on my compute and white on the woman's). Poisons don't proc off the secondary weapon.  My fights where all I have done was melee auto, all I proc with is my main hand.  But poisons don't add up at all to me now that I look at it.  In the long sustained melee only fights, my poison procs anywhere from 4% to 15%, no where near the 25% the poison says it should proc.  But in the fights I front load with ranged CAs, I usually get a 30-40% poison proc rate.  Now, I'm assuming the goal here is to get poison to proc on auto-attacks only.  Works with melee so far as I can tell, but ranged I still proc off other procs (from buffs, weapons, etc). <div></div><p>Message Edited by HanktheDwarf on <span class=date_text>12-09-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:26 PM</span>

[HanktheDwarf]

And also, the new SK pet is borked.  The name is displayed as <A$'s infernal sacrament> instead of <Grobblebutt's infernal sacrament>. And what exactly do you mean by toggle?  It says the squire is now toggleable, which I take it to mean I can get rid of it and recast immediately.  But now it's got a one minute recast.  So when I click to cancel, I have to wait a minute to recast. <div></div>

[Jshail]

<DIV>1.  When freeing the lord in the goblin hideout all three of my machines crashed to desktop with the same error.  plus one of my guild mates had the same thing happen.  Message recived was something to the effect of a pixel shader error.  will do the quest on another toon and copy the exact text on the crash warning.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2.  Elf won't port you into the wonderland</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3.  the little elf cap is nice however those of us that wear robes have to remove our tops for the hat to be visible.  enable the hood and our robe covers the pretty little elf hat</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4.  Pet AoE Changes are not good.  the AoE affects every mob in the area.  this isn't good when fighting in an area that has Ally attackable NPC's.  I was in Maj Dul fighting guards and a patrol consisting of my ally faction strolled by and my pets AOE got them all riled up at me.  I don't mind the AoE but it needs to be encounter locked not every mob in the area.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5.  every time you zone you get that Quest update Dink sound</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6.  merchant selling the holiday goodies prices are a bit over the top.  60s or one item is a bit much for low level players just starting out (new players not alts of established players).  they barely have 60 copper to thier names.  I think the lowest price item was 36 silver</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>haven't had time to look at anything else but will update if i find anything else</DIV>

[HanktheDwarf]

Osen was able to free the Lord without crashing.  She had her settings to Extreme Performance.  Mine were at High Performance and I crashed. <div></div>

[Dyeana]

<P>Got the boot out on the release of the elf ... <verify> d:deveq2frameworkrendersrcveShader.cpp (8074) M__pPixelshader</P> <P> </P> <P>Couple comments, the dialog refers to the goblins as greenies ... they aren't very green.</P> <P>The labels of the colors do not match up on the musical pans.  </P> <P>The quest when given from the elves was 15.7 percent ... but look in the quest log, it is 4.2 percent  .... for a level 30 player.</P> <P>Cost of the decorations is awfully high.  Do the decorations count in the room numbers? shouldn't since decorations.</P> <P> </P> <P>Are there some recipes for our provisioners?  Or treats to buy?  Need to get some time to get ingredients if recipes.  I could go for some wild apple sauce, sour cream and Potatoe Latkes!  And eggnog, sugar cookies, dancing sugar plums and other holiday treats.  We got to get out there shopping for Feasting Day!!!</P> <P>Do we get to buy some ribbons to wrap things up?  You never know when the high elves may want to wear just a bow to bed Frostfell Eve to entice their gentlemen  heheeee.</P> <P>Nice event so far, but couldn't get into wonderland.</P> <P> </P> <P>Dye</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Zindicatt]

<P>1. The music is wonderful!  Kudos to the composer.  </P> <P>2. Loving the house decorations.  Nice design!  =)</P> <P>3. Horses are stripped off after taking the carpet again.  </P> <P>4. "ding" sound every time I zone.</P> <P> </P>

[Naknek]

<DIV>Was booted upon freeing the elf.  Changed settings to extreme performance and was able to go back in the hideout and talk to Bowsprite and complete that part.   </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Got the hat, but still can't get sent to Wonderland.</DIV> <P>  <P>  <P>  <P> </P><p>Message Edited by Naknek on <span class=date_text>12-11-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:22 PM</span>

[HanktheDwarf]

Another bit of feedback.  The quest indicators above the NPC's head are a little quirky.  They sit right above their head if there name is not shown, but if you mouse over/target to get their name to show up, the icon goes way up above their head.  Think their could be a medium height that it stays at, with or without the name? <div></div>

[Silverdrop]

<div></div><div></div>I noticed some weird things with the quest indicators:- For me all quest indicators are just a feather, whether it's someone offereing quest, progressing/updating or a quest that's finished. (edit: seen the book icon once now for an npc that would complete my quest. However seen NPCs that complete a quest with just a feather. Maybe sometimes the order is mixed up? i.e. The quest that can be completed by talking to this NPC also makes a new quest available from that same NPC?)- I started a new character and made him a fighter. On the Isle of Refuge (Evil), both the Fighter and the Priest NPC had a feather above their had. The scout NPC did not. I'd expect the Priest NPC shouldn't have had one either.- How should these quest indicators behave in respect to for example the collection reward NPC's? at the moment for me Renny Parvat (East Freeport) didn't have any indicator above his head. (Perhaps since collections have been separated from regular quests this could be the desired behaviour)- The Tears Grifter NPC in Maj'Dul didn't have a quest indicator for my lvl 54 Necromancer while he did have a quest to give. A guild member said this could be because of display settings (particle effects at lowest possible setting) If this is indeed the case, I'm not sure whether such implicit regulation is a good thing. I'd rather have an explicit option to turn them on or off.<div></div><p>Message Edited by Silverdrop on <span class="date_text">12-12-2005</span> <span class="time_text">02:29 PM</span></p><p>Message Edited by Silverdrop on <span class=date_text>12-12-2005</span> <span class=time_text>04:41 PM</span>

[Silverdrop]

I noticed that when going thropugh some items in my shared bank that my newly created fighter (lvl 4) could equip the dwarven dagger of cleansing (which he shouldn't be able to till lvl 19) (see screenshot, red markings indicated the key bits of information. Note that the color of the name is still red, indicating I shouldn't be able to use it, yet I could equip it. A guild member reported a similar thing about a driud item that he could no longer use, although he did meet the requirements (druid 9). When he linked the item, the item was grey to me even though I was logged in with a lvl 54 Necromancer and judging by the restrictions the item should've been red, not grey. These two both suggest that maybe there's something changed in the equip/conning code for items and that a bug has been introduced here.<img src="http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eaiko/EQ2_000000.jpg"><div></div>

[Owlchick]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> HanktheDwarf wrote:<BR> <BR>Reading the book yields large blank pages (black on my compute and white on the woman's).<BR><BR> <P>Message Edited by HanktheDwarf on <SPAN class=date_text>12-09-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>11:26 PM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Which book is this?  And does this problem still occur?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[Naknek]

<DIV>If it is a reference to the book <U>Why The Grump Hated Frostfell,</U> I also could not see the illustrations in the book at first.  They appeared to be just black rectangles.  There are a couple of blank pages also, but I think those are intentional.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I had my graphic settings on Extreme Performance to keep from crashing when I talked to Bowsprite.  Once I changed back to higher settings I could see the illustrations in the book.  Hope that helps.</DIV>

[Feconix]

<FONT face=Verdana size=2>The zoning problem <EM>should</EM> be fixed with the next update. Thanks for reporting it!</FONT>

[Silverfrost]

Thanks, we're working on the item equiping issue.

[HanktheDwarf]

<span><blockquote><hr>Owlchick wrote: <blockquote> <hr> HanktheDwarf wrote: <div></div>Reading the book yields large blank pages (black on my compute and white on the woman's). <div></div> <p>Message Edited by HanktheDwarf on <span class="date_text">12-09-2005</span> <span class="time_text">11:26 PM</span> </p><hr> </blockquote> <div>Which book is this?  And does this problem still occur?</div> <div> </div> <div>Thanks <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></div><hr></blockquote>Yes, it was the Grump book.  But it seems to be fixed now.  <span>:smileyhappy:</span></span><div></div>

[Autenil-EQ2]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Jshail wrote:<BR> <DIV>5.  every time you zone you get that Quest update Dink sound</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>This one should be fixed in one of the next Test patches.</P> <P>Thanks for reporting these issues!<BR></P>

[Kuulei]

<P>SOEBuild=2555T                (sorry about all the 'edits' but I am posting these as I find them)</P> <P>Ding is gone when zoning, thanks.</P> <P>Wonderland is still not available, npc just keeps repeating 'Do you need to go back to Wonderland?"</P> <P>Gabby Giftgiver is missing from Qeynos Harbor, reports from Freeportians also indicate their giftgiver is missing as well.</P> <P>When using the Bag `O Goblin to port back, you have a chance to port into someone else's instance and get kicked in 15 seconds, currently it sends you to Thundering Steppes Dock.</P> <P>Message Edited by Kuulei on <SPAN class=date_text>12-13-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>08:31 AM</SPAN></P> <P>Message Edited by Kuulei on <SPAN class=date_text>12-13-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>09:08 AM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by Kuulei on <span class=date_text>12-13-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:29 AM</span>

[Tadok]

<P>Also as of 2555T</P> <P>I did not get the santa hat after freeing Lord Bowsprite.  Also did not get a quest indicator over the elfin in QH after leaving the hideout.</P> <P> </P> <P>Labb Accident</P> <P><Children of War></P>

[HanktheDwarf]

<div></div>And in today's news, the goblins on IoR made a stunning move recruiting Lord Nagafen as a guard dog.<font color="#ff0000"></font><font color="#ff0000" size="2">(Took the picture out.  Keep forgetting my resolution is too long. Linked below.)</font>As seen on <a href="http://home.comcast.net/%7Erandomlessness/bugs/EQ2_000069.jpg" target=_blank>IoR: Qeynos</a>.Also, a...<a href="http://home.comcast.net/%7Erandomlessness/bugs/EQ2_000064.jpg" target="_blank">Glowy pot</a> and <a href="http://home.comcast.net/%7Erandomlessness/bugs/EQ2_000068.jpg" target="_blank">Snow</a> (no, not the "INFORMA!" guy)<div></div><p>Message Edited by HanktheDwarf on <span class=date_text>12-15-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:37 AM</span>

[Owlchick]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> HanktheDwarf wrote:<BR>And in today's news, the goblins on IoR made a stunning move recruiting Lord Nagafen as a guard dog.<BR><BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>He's just heading to the Isle for his holidays, like so many other folks, no doubt.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[HanktheDwarf]

<div></div>So we were finally able to go to the Elfin Wonderland.Good stuff, but it's a potential XP farm.  Explainations:My level 42 Ranger got .2-.3% per kill.  My level 16 Bard got ~1.3% per kill (both with vitality).  In the 15 minutes it took my bard to clear out the place, he got 55%.  Why?  It's took easy.  Currently, the snowball satchel has a 3 second recast.  Now, after doing the instance I realize that's too fast.  All you have to do is cast it, wait 3 seconds, and cast it again and the critter is dead.  You can even move while doing this so the mobs never touch you.  Way too easy.  Makes me think the recast was meant to be 30 seconds so at least you'd have to take down the last 47% of health yourself.Suggestions? Tweak the XP so it's next to no existant, or up the recast of the satchel.  As it stands right now, low levels could easily get 2 levels an hour, and the higher levels could concievably get almost half a level in the same.  And/or a lockout.  Maybe an hour or so.  Or just take the exit away so they can't leave until the end (if the recast stays 3 seconds, there is really no reason someone should have to leave).Also, my Ranger was in a bit of a hurry and forgot to get the present from the Grump.  I zoned out, and realized it later.  The quest is in my Active tab, but it's listed as completed.  Now, when I talk to Pinchy, she talks to me as if she never gave me the quest.  Tried to skip ahead to see if I could go to the Hideout, but I couldn't.<div></div><p>Message Edited by HanktheDwarf on <span class=date_text>12-15-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:35 AM</span>

[Xaana]

<P>After completing the quest I left the wonderland zone.  I did not talk to the elf again or whatever it is you have to do to recieve your snowglobe reward  </P> <P> </P> <P>The elf in QH does not give me the option to port back to wonderland instead he tries to offer me the first (gibblerhideout) quest again.  </P> <P> </P> <P>Not really worried about my reward, but might be a cs ticket nightmere tring to get dumb ppl like me their snowglobes.  </P>

[HanktheDwarf]

<div></div>Also, the snowballs from the buckets around town really should be No-Value.  Right now you can sell them for 7c.  And you can click the hell out of that bucket awfully fast.  Couple hours I'm sure would net someone some serious plat.Addendum:  I checked it out.  In 10 minutes I was able to get 156 stacks of snowballs (3120 snowballs).  Sold them for a total of 2 gold and 18 silver.  You know someone is going to take this to the extreme.<div></div><p>Message Edited by HanktheDwarf on <span class=date_text>12-15-2005</span> <span class=time_text>02:48 PM</span>

[HanktheDwarf]

The HO starter changed to where you can't use it out of combat.  Which is nice, prevents me from accidently using it and then starting a fight.Noticed something quirky about it though just now.  If you yell off an encounter, but for whatever reason decide to actually fight it, you won't be able to start any HOs because it doesn't recognize you as being in combat.<div></div>

[Tadok]

<P>Its always been that way for me grobble. When you yell and break an encounter you cant use HO's at all. But there is another issue with this thats kind of annoying. Now when fighiting heroic or non heroic groups of mobs if you hit the starter then kill the mob you are on with a successful  trigger CA, it wont advance the HO. The wheel will remain up but you have to hit the next mob with a different trigger CA. Had this happen a good number of times fighting green mobs finishing up some quests.</P> <P> </P> <P>Labb Accident</P> <P><Children of War></P>

[EtoilePirate]

<b>Grobb said:</b><i>Noticed something quirky about it though just now.  If you yell off an encounter, but for whatever reason decide to actually fight it, you won't be able to start any HOs because it doesn't recognize you as being in combat.</i>It's always been like that for anything that might be considered a broken enounter.  And as I discovered doing some testing with Sephiro the other day, it's the same for anything that wasn't your encounter to start with.  The test was this: he'd pull a mob, then I'd jump in, steal aggro, and kill it.  And out of habit, I kept hitting the HO starter and using skills in combinations, but it didn't get me anywhere because it wasn't "my" encounter.Now, I spent several hours this week in Zek killing grey orcs Many at a time waiting for Goorlux (or his placeholders) to pop.  Solo orcs I would pull multiple of at a time (shoot others while one near me was dying of DoTs), and heroic groups of up to 4 I'd stand there and wail on.  And I had no trouble targeting which mob I wanted, when I wanted, and completing HOs at will.  So maybe the thing Labb reports doesn't happen on grey mobs?  Or maybe it affects spells and CAs differently? <div></div>

[HanktheDwarf]

I just noticed (not really, just now remembered about it).  The BBC/EBBC is not usable by Paladins anymore.  Just wondering if that was a mistake or an intentional change.<div></div>