Druid Ring reconstruction live event – Feedback and Bugs

[Windslasher]

A mysterious young Fae named Kurista has begun a ritual to restore the ruined druid rings across Norrath! She and her followers have begun work in a remote corner of Nektulos Forest, near the Valley of the Dead. Adventurers and crafters of all seasons have been invited to help with their undertaking.

The druid ring reconstruction event is now active on Test and Test Copy. Unlike prior building events, this one is active in just one zone at a time. Once the Nektulos ring has been empowered, it will become a valid travel destination from any of the other druid rings, and Kurista's retinue will move to a new location.

The Nektulos site is on the plateau north of N'Marr's Ascent, at the coordinates -13, 90, -2000. Once the event has moved on, an NPC at the newly-rebuilt ring will offer to teleport you to the next site.

Please make all your feedback posts to this thread. Thanks!

Note: Edited to make this sticky!

[Xalmat]

Will it be force completed like the Spire events, if any individual server doesn't complete it in a set period of time?

[Iskandar]

I have a few questions too   What sort of time-scale are you scripting the event for, from beginning to completion of each individual ring? How many individual druid rings will be involved? What level of participation are you planning for on Live.. ie, how much impact will each individual contribution have on progress? Will progress scale up or down based on player involvement (or lack of) to better balance high and low population servers?

The reason I ask is because of the last two events such as this. With the rebuilt spires, a long-term event was planned for, and many people spent hour after hour grinding quests only to see 0-1% of progress... which led many to simply give up on it after a bit, leaving the event to autocomplete on every server.  At the opposite end, when the griffon towers were built in several zones, the event was over so quickly that many of us missed it entirely before we even got home from work... I don't beleive it was designed for the high level of response the players provided. Ideally, I'd hope this new event will last long enough to give players of different schedules an equal chance to participate, but not so long that folks get frustrated and stop.

[feldon30]

Hopefully during the running of this event, the completion rates on different servers will be monitored and there will be hooks in the code allowing the completion rate to be vectored up and down, rather than just auto-completing.

[Krinta]

When trying to buy the "A black granite druid ring, a blessed sapling, a blessed shrubbery" I was told the price of each item is unknown.

The gems lack any color in the dressing room, and are really hard to see.

Any chance of adding some nature, and or storm themed items added to the vender? Bo staff with lightning efect come to mind seeing as Karana is helping, and maybe some weapon that has flowers or leafs falling from it?

I looked all over for a reconstruction counter and found nothing. Could Kurista tells us how close she is to being done by chance?

[Anestacia]

I love the new items available on the merchant.  The Druid ring in particular.  As mentioned above, the gems are very hard to see in the dressing room.  One constructive feedback I have is to add more nature themed house items and accessories.  The teleportaiton pads returning is fine but doesnt really make sense that the merchant would have more Eurdite and Void Live event stuff than new nature inspired items.

That being said, the few nature inspired items up are wonderful.  Also, the merchant might change what she sells as they move on to the next ring...so if thats the case then I apologize in advance.  Thank You.

[channel]

any chance we can get this item added to the merchant?

aITEM 443252683 -377067148:Mother of Pearl Inlaid End Table/a

i love this inlaid table, and i only bought one at the time with the D.I.R.T.Y tokens ( i think that was the event for that item)...

i'd be a totally happy decorator if you could

ok - i'm already a totally happy decorator, but i'd be even happier!!!!

[Cyliena]

channel wrote:

any chance we can get this item added to the merchant?

aITEM 443252683 -377067148:Mother of Pearl Inlaid End Table/a

i love this inlaid table, and i only bought one at the time with the D.I.R.T.Y tokens ( i think that was the event for that item)...

i'd be a totally happy decorator if you could

ok - i'm already a totally happy decorator, but i'd be even happier!!!!

I second this! I had only purchased one of those tables, too, and would love to get more.

Also, I concur with Anestacia above that the Quellithulian items on the merchant seem very out of place.

My only other feedback at this point (only have briefly looked at stuff, haven't had time to run the quests yet) is that the quartermaster should get a subtitle of underneath his name.. it took me a bit to realize where to get the special fuel at. Also, I would like to see a progress meter as well.. offhand I didn't see one.

edit: Just logged back in to find out my inventory was overflowing. The reason was because somehow the quest giver for Chosen Foes: Nektulos Forest handed me two sky lures (which are lore). I only had one that I saw before camping, though I do recall getting a message of "you cannot receive this item because you already have one" when I had accepted the quest.

edit: Nevermind on the overflowing issue, I see from Benji in a seperate post that the issue is already resolved.

[Windslasher]

Alright! With the next Test build I plan to reactivate the event and you'll see the following changes:

• The inventory overflow issue with "Chosen Foes" will be resolved, along with the crash bug.
• Items that had an incorrect price set (the shrubbery, fruittree etc.) will be purchaseable.
• The gemstones that currently have invalid appearances are being removed. In their place, there will be a couple different gems with cool particle effects. Unfortunately these aren't previewable in the dressing room because of how FX work.
• The Ulteran and Quellithulian-themed items are being removed from the merchant because they made no sense.
• A banker will be present with Kurista's party. Some of you might recognize him...

Also, a couple notes about how the event already works:

• Completion rate is dynamically configurable, just like it was for the spire event, so every server will have a different quota to finish and if things are going too slowly, it can be sped up.
• The spire event had an issue where a majority of quest turnins happened at already-completed sites, and didn't contribute to the overall progress. Since this event focuses on one druid ring at a time, it will advance more steadily.
• Once all of the druid rings are reconstructed (and this will happen naturally on every server this time), the repeatable quests will unlock in every zone. People who wish to continue getting tokens after it's over can do so at whatever spot they like best.
• The merchants have slightly different items in each zone. In particular, there's more than one version of the druid ring house item.

More updates coming soon!

[Mehntally]

Is there any chance that those of us who missed the spires and void live events will ever be able to get the teleport pads or other goodies those events offered?  Ideally I'd love to see them on the city festival vendor or some such other monthly event.  I would have loved to participate in those events but life conspired against me and it just was not possible.  I just hate missing out on the good stuff =/

[channel]

Windslasher wrote:

Alright! With the next Test build I plan to reactivate the event and you'll see the following changes:

• The Ulteran and Quellithulian-themed items are being removed from the merchant because they made no sense.

sorry to be dense...

but can you list what exactly is being removed (item names)...?

i don't just intuitively know what "ulteran and quellithulian-themed items" means

[Cyliena]

Ok, I've ran two of the quests now (didn't feel like trekking back for t2 supplies), so here's my updated feedback:

The Motes of Growth quest will likely be the most-loved of this event. However, I noticed that there's different sized magilith stones. While I can see it feasible for getting a friend to want to mine the two person stone with you, I really think the four person stone will be a waste. I'd rather see another two person stone and two one person stones in its place.

The Chosen Foes quest is proving a challenge for me. These mobs are v and vv, but they are kicking my Troubadour behind. I'm doing this as a level 79 Troubadour in all Legendary gear, but almost am dead every fight. =

edit: Another thing about the Chosen Foes quest.. it would be nice if the popup message also displayed in your chat window. I had walked out of its range originally because of other popups from POIs and harvests.

edit: The Sky Lure is not removed from your inventory when you complete the quest. I also cannot destroy it. =

edit: Elwe asks for 12 Motes of Growth in her dialogue, but the quest only requires 6.

edit: The respawn rate for the magiliths seems perfect, don't change it.

[Windslasher]

A couple more answers:

By "Ulteran and Quellithulian-themed items," I meant the purely cosmetic furniture pieces that actually had "Quellithulian" or "Ulteran" in the name. It doesn't make sense for a Tunarian merchant in Nektulos to be selling an Ornate Quellithulian Bookcase. Maybe if he was in Odus or something...

Teleport pads will remain on the merchant because they're too awesome not to offer again.

I know the mega-magiliths can be a hassle, requiring four people to harvest, but you should try it anyway. They drop bonus tokens!

The issues with the sky lure and motes of growth got pm'd to me in chat last night, and I have both of those fixed internally for the next update.

I'll look at difficulty on those Chosen Foes encounters. They are meant to be a challenge of course, but I don't want them kicking Troubador behinds.

[Cyliena]

Windslasher wrote:

I know the mega-magiliths can be a hassle, requiring four people to harvest, but you should try it anyway. They drop bonus tokens!

I'll look at difficulty on those Chosen Foes encounters. They are meant to be a challenge of course, but I don't want them kicking Troubador behinds.

If only I was social enough to do so! I'm sure some people will enjoy that then if there's bonus tokens on the line. Could I convince you to throw in a few more one-person stones anyways for us unsocialable people?

Thanks. I haven't tried it with my beefier characters yet, and maybe it's just the fact that bards aren't meant to tank well. I just figured with down arrow difficulty mobs that I shouldn't be on the brink of death at the end of each fight.

[channel]

Windslasher wrote:

By "Ulteran and Quellithulian-themed items," I meant the purely cosmetic furniture pieces that actually had "Quellithulian" or "Ulteran" in the name. It doesn't make sense for a Tunarian merchant in Nektulos to be selling an Ornate Quellithulian Bookcase. Maybe if he was in Odus or something...

ah - that's kind of sad tbh

i miss so much sometimes due to rl stuff, and i totally missed the original spire event ... it'd be nice to KEEP those "ulteran" and "quellithulian" items as part of this event

it'd be nice to get back some of those other items from DIRTY, etc - that aren't avail anymore either...

just me wishing

is the "rebuild of each ring" on test_copy going to be accelerated so that we can see / test the quests for the other druid rings?

[Anestacia]

Windslasher wrote:

A couple more answers:

By "Ulteran and Quellithulian-themed items," I meant the purely cosmetic furniture pieces that actually had "Quellithulian" or "Ulteran" in the name. It doesn't make sense for a Tunarian merchant in Nektulos to be selling an Ornate Quellithulian Bookcase. Maybe if he was in Odus or something...

Nice eluding to the rebuilding of the Stonebrunt rings

I'm excited to see whats on the other merchants and any other surprises we have in store.  I am a druid at heart and LOVED the plane of Growth in EQ1 so all these refrences make me feel all nostalgic!

[Purr]

Please do not set the rate to high/low on Test Server. Esp. if the vendors sell slightly different items per ring and are only active on the ring that is being build. It would be a shame if we couldn't have that event around long enough for as many people as possible to participate. If you want to test all locations in a hurry I would suggest doing a dry run in which only one (of each) quests is required for completion, do it for all rings and then reset them with a >good< rate?

And with another set of tokens entering the game: When will the Foreign Exchange Token Merchant be ready to be put in the game? I know you devs have kept that NPC in mind, but it has been months since Gninja mentioned him. Any news?

Thanks for reading.

Purr~

[Katz]

channel wrote:

Windslasher wrote:

By "Ulteran and Quellithulian-themed items," I meant the purely cosmetic furniture pieces that actually had "Quellithulian" or "Ulteran" in the name. It doesn't make sense for a Tunarian merchant in Nektulos to be selling an Ornate Quellithulian Bookcase. Maybe if he was in Odus or something...

ah - that's kind of sad tbh

i miss so much sometimes due to rl stuff, and i totally missed the original spire event ... it'd be nice to KEEP those "ulteran" and "quellithulian" items as part of this event

it'd be nice to get back some of those other items from DIRTY, etc - that aren't avail anymore either...

just me wishing

is the "rebuild of each ring" on test_copy going to be accelerated so that we can see / test the quests for the other druid rings?

Hopefully those can be added into some events.  Maybe tinkerfest or add some other type of city festival that runs separately from the current city festivals.   Have like a high level city festival that runs the middle of each month that has different types of quests and gives Maj Dul or Odus furniture.

[Krinta]

Cyliena@Everfrost wrote:

Windslasher wrote:

I know the mega-magiliths can be a hassle, requiring four people to harvest, but you should try it anyway. They drop bonus tokens!

I'll look at difficulty on those Chosen Foes encounters. They are meant to be a challenge of course, but I don't want them kicking Troubador behinds.

If only I was social enough to do so! I'm sure some people will enjoy that then if there's bonus tokens on the line. Could I convince you to throw in a few more one-person stones anyways for us unsocialable people?

The one person stones in-fact needed to be less in each harvesting spot. Or at lest have there respawn time take longer. While I wont say why. There is a reason to it that I let Windslasher know about

Also four people for a stone seems a little much, trying to work four people to click at the right time with each person having different pings might be hard. Could we have some kind of team harvest check were all four people have to target it and then harvest with in say 5-10 sec to be able to get the added tokens?

One last thing I would like to ask. We have hats that are mushrooms, how about some that are flowers, or leafs? Baseball cap style with a leaf would look cool on a crafter!

[Windslasher]

The vendors will remain up next to each ring after it is completed, and the event will not shut off when it's completed -- you'll still be able to repeat the quests after all the rings are built. So there's no need to worry about missing things, unless you procrastinate until GU 57!

About the group harvest stones and lag: It's actually using a 5 second timer right now. When one player starts harvesting, the next player has 5 seconds to join in (which resets the timer), and so on. So you don't have to sync up perfectly at all. I could increase that timer too if it's a problem. The only catch is that however long the timer gets, that's how long you have to wait after the last person harvests it before it updates everyone. So it probably wouldn't be fun if I doubled it to 10 seconds.

Unfortunately, it's way too late to add new art like hats right now. I'll see what can be done about a token exchanger, though I can't guarantee such a thing for the game update.

[Anestacia]

Am I right in assuming this will not be going in on Tuesday?  If thats correct, do we have a date when it will be going in?

[Purr]

Windslasher wrote:

The vendors will remain up next to each ring after it is completed, and the event will not shut off when it's completed -- you'll still be able to repeat the quests after all the rings are built. So there's no need to worry about missing things, unless you procrastinate until GU 57!

QFE - thank you very very much!

Purr~

[Windslasher]

The data for this will be going in with GU 56. If a lot of problems turn up in testing this weekend, then it won't be enabled until the problems are fixed. It's quite flexible.

[Cyliena]

Windslasher wrote:

The data for this will be going in with GU 56. If a lot of problems turn up in testing this weekend, then it won't be enabled until the problems are fixed. It's quite flexible.

Wow seems surprisingly sudden! Any idea when the current pending fixes are going in? I didn't want to test out any more than I did until that.

[Anestacia]

thats awsome   Looking forward to it

[Nuhus]

Is there a reward for those that spend more effort in rebuilding? (IE not token bought) Is the only thing we get token rewards? Do you actually feel like you need to contibute?Titles?

The original spire event I enjoyed more because it needed certain amounts of parts from adventurers and crafters. The last one, not so much. Also, it didn't seem like you got anything at all for helping more in the event on the new one.

And to elaborate, on AB they were auto completed, I don't think it gave anyone a reason to invest any time in it, other than getting the AA the first time.

[Tyrus Dracofire]

any screenshot of "Black Granite" druid stonering?

[Windslasher]

Update: Test has been updated and the event is running again!

[Avanya]

woohoo!  Thanks for adding this event to the game!  I am so excited and happy

[Cyliena]

I spy with my own eyes some different items on the merchant!

I do have to ask though--is the 10 ooc run speed on the Wayfarer's Boots intentional? I know they're statless otherwise, but that surprised me. As well, is there going to be a full Wayfarer's set?

And wow about the cost of the blessed sapling, I hope that fruit is worth it!

Will update with any other feedback once I re-run the quests.

edit: Just had a thought.. could we get the magiliths as house items on the merchant please?

edit: Additional feedback!

1. I grouped with someone for a while on Copy to try out the two person stones. They worked fine, each harvest yielded two updates per person.

2. We also tried out the Chosen Foes quest. This became interesting because I was 78 and he stayed un-mentored at 90. The drakotas he called were level 90, but since they aggroed him first, it was fine. Then I tried it at a different site.. and the drakotas were still level 90! Needless to say, I lasted about long enough to say "oh crap!" out loud. I know the ideal solution would have been for him to mentor me, but the drakotas should either be scale to the level of the person using the lure, or scale to the average of the group.

3. Also, after I got ressurected from my untimely demise, I was unable to interact with any of the 1 person harvest magiliths. The 2 and 4 person magiliths were still able to be interacted with. I'm not sure if this was related to dying, but that's the only difference that occured.

4. The bonus chest with a token for two people doing the drakotas together is a great touch, thanks! I'll have to drag my hubby around on Live for that quest.

5. Could the amount of drakotas needed be lowered to 8? It seems that no matter how you do it (solo or duo roup) you're always going to need only one more kill but have to kill a group of either 2 or 4 drakes for it.

6. Now that I finally purchased the 50 token tree, I can say--that's DEFINITELY worth it! I'm curious--how many possible berries can you get? I've seen three so far (three different characters trying a tree each, no worries--the one day delay seems to work just fine). It would also be nice to see 10% for the sweet berry's effect, but I won't complain either way it goes.

7. The Jewel of Balance -- I don't think people are going to be too thrilled with a void type effect on it.. reminds me of the Tempest in a Teacup effect (LoN item). The point of it also sinks into surfaces--not sure if that was intentional or not. On the flip side, the Jewel of Growth has a very nice particle effect and places perfectly.

8. Random, but somewhat related -- any chance pvp can be disabled on the server again? It's hard to find people on copy to test the 4 person rock when half of them would rather splatter you instead.

9. Any word on having some sort of progress meter in? I've only seen myself and a few others swing by on Copy, and though a couple of us have been running quite a few of the quests, I have no idea if any dent is being made to progress.

10. I have serious love with that black granite druid ring!

11. Elwe's dialogue asks for 12 motes still, but the quest requires 6. Simply a cosmetic thing but I /bug'd it this time too.