Module Changes
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The Ancient Watch Tower Quest got some updates and redesign. Our data said it was the most often done Hard quest right now.
1). I noted almost everyone used tunnels to get to it because it was hard to reach; now you can just walk north from High Road Haunted Halls to reach it.
2). Most undead on the quest were redesigned; can't lie, these weren't made to provide any semblance of a challenge to players before with a few notable exceptions. They should be hard, but fair now. Some had effects that could kill a player with a failed saving throw; they still have this, I didn't change it (just letting folks know).
3). Added a chance to do a little more roleplaying of your character on the quest.
4). Treasure tables were updated to have a wider variety of loot and rewards.
5). The boss is no longer a pathetic chump I hope, he should feel like a boss fight now on a hard quest.As always; these updates are designed to make quests more fun (not more lethal, even with the caveat this is still suppose to be a hard quest). If we overshot/undershot the mark, let us know. I'll help out to fix errors in appropriate ways. Feedback is always very welcome and taken seriously!
Due to IC actions, an agent in the Historic district now is offering people ship passage to the Immersea Isles; seems the Black Wheel is cutting some deals with someone.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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The third part of the Stormbreaker Isle trilogy; the Ancient Temple quest given by the Ominous Cave has been tweaked based on viewing some different groups doing it.
There was a specific bug with one encounter that used a NWN hak resource instead of one of our custom resources that created an unbalanced situation. This is now resolved. The optional boss fight NPC's AB was much too high, this was lowered and some of his DR was removed to make him more manageable.
The overall loot rewards (especially consumables) was increased so players are more likely to walk out ahead.
Polar Bear Gloves had their damage reduced from d6 slashing d6 cold to do d4 slashing and d4 cold (this is still probably too powerful for monk gear; but a little more reasonable than monks doing 200% extra damage with a flurry of blows).
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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I've made adjustments to some of our familiars - in terms of power - they're all over the place with some just being awful and some pretty good. They should now be in more the same range, useful to keep a solo-wizards/sorcerer alive in a pinch or at low-levels; maybe useful in specific situations elsewhere.
Open to feedback on these.
Likewise, did some tweaks to bring summons (Reptiles, Constructs, Animals, Fire Elementals) into more a general alignment of power.
Open to feedback on these as well.
There's a new way to gamble in the Twisted Coin; rat races!
A player made this years and years ago for CoA, but the old DM team had never wanted to put a casino into the game; now that we have, I could finally use it.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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Moved the Halfhap quest again from Bospir to the Masoner's Bridge, renamed it East Way Village quest and redid the elementals on it to reflect our metagame (they lacked elemental damage previously) and to be a little more manageable for a solo quest; gear and treasure lists were updated.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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Did some adjustments to the new quest Hell Cows in the Icy Tower to fix bugs.
Fixed a problem with the Halfhap (now East Way Villages) quest exit sending you to Tilverton instead of the quest start area.
Bospir and Immersea now have some better items in their Prestige VIP stores.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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Minor updates to the optional part of ants quest - mostly new loot rewards, but some tweaking of the ants (probably won't be noticeable to players much) but also a new ant can spawn.
Most importantly - Treasure maps now lead to a lot more loot options. If you have an idea for a loot option you'ld like to find using a map, let me know and I'll add it.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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Big revision to the Warm Waterfall quest; there are already a lot of quests in this loop that have animals and elementals as foes. So now it has spoilers and, as you'ld expect, more dwarves since you're suppose to be fighting dwarven mercenaries.
Treasure tables entirely updated, conversations changed to reflect the lore/story better.
Enemies from this quest will also be appearing in areas of the module now.
Improved the variability of enemy spawns on Barrenstone after feedback from a player that the spawns were repetitive; this was good to hear because it helped me find a bug that was preventing the 8 new kinds of fairies I made for this quest earlier this spring from appearing.
People also complain about the layout of this map, revising it fully would take awhile, so I've added a climb check in the most useful place to help you get around quicker and kept it very easy.
Fixed some reward items appearing on quests that didn't have charges, particularly the museum quest revision - looking at you Ashes of St. Darmos the Lucky.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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Healing kits are going through some changes (and they're not set in stone - expect adjustments as we tweak and test) -- but currently their weight is reduced to 0.2 pounds (you may see them at 0.0 right now, that will adjust soon). They now have charges, and the AC penalty when you use a kit is (at least temporarily) removed right now.
We want healing common, especially for the solo players, but healing wands really undermine the challenge the game should present during combat; sure heal up all the way between combats. So this adjustment is part of the process of getting there, you probably also notice a decrease in healing wands on most quests -- the goal is to shift toward kits between fights to heal up and to save the wands for combat.
But this is a big process to figure out, and we'll welcome all the player and community feedback we can get so that we get this right.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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Polymorph (the spell) is yielding some strange unbalanced problems (Umberhulks with 50 AC almost) I'm going to make some adjustments here; with a restoration of Umberhulks back to their NWN default stats for now). Will look for any player feedback folks want to send on this - I hope to someday let wizards get a few more polymorph options like druids get (but this will take time to figure out and implement - unless someone with great scripting knowledge wants to grab a few projects).
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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v8821
Based on the Prestige earned by Bospir, there will now be a shop connected to the Shrine of Mystra in Noble District, the Champion of Sune in Noble District, and the halfling Catana in Eastway Outskirts. This represents the growing power of the Council of Faiths, if Bospir prestige drops, the stores shut down.
Also big thanks to @Emoteen who volunteered to join the Artisan's Guild and made a lot of tasty snacks in the taverns. Its the little touches!
If you want to help our Artisan Guild with scripting, building, or server maintenance - please let me know! We have projects ranging from "so simple we can teach you in a few minutes" to "so vastly complicated only one DM even knows how to do it so it would be good to have two people". Its a great way to help keep CoA fresh and alive.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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A big change that deserves a note:
We've reduced damage bonuses on crafted gloves and whips. In many cases, these damage bonuses were unjustifiable for our power-setting; monk gloves that do 2d6 bonus just by the math means a monk could do over 100 damage in a single round of combat. A bonus of 1-4 damage is in the maximum line with our current power-setting.
Full-Transparency, this is where we're aiming to take loot, this is a living document and subject to change and discussion with the whole community; but it is the currently goal-post.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/125ZF5I6AnODH0qQBB3VIvflQwXH36C4bE1RAVXkEHlg/edit?gid=1995821587#gid=1995821587The same issue applies to whips, you can dual-wield these off-hand and they give a free bonus feat. But some of these whips did 2d6 + damage, effectively letting players dual-wield a greatsword that gives them a free disarm. So whips likewise, were reduced to a bonus of 1 to 1d4 + 2 damage.
None of this affects existing items, just future crafting items.
Finally, be aware, we want to start the process of rebalancing crafting, adjusting prices to be consistent to our new changes to potions (crafting should still be slightly cheaper than stores be it crafting, imbuing, etc). There's a Discord discussion for this.
Moving on some power increases and QOL improvements -
Divine Favor now works as standard NWN again. Implemented by player request.
https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Divine_favorSkinning creatures should now take 2.75 seconds instead of 6 (QOL improvement by player request).
Monks will begin to see some improvements to their class as well - Wholeness of Body will now heal 1/2 max HP and cast restoration on the monk rather than 2 HP / level. Monks will see some other changes quite likely, and hopefully, this will allow a refactoring of the "monk only" store because our philosophy is we shouldn't have to rely on items to keep a class balanced, we should balance the class.
As always, open to any and all player feedback on all of this. Crafting is big, so open to any and all help there too.
I redid the encounters, loot tables, and boss for the Fungal Cave quest - some really odd issues were plaguing this quest and it should work more as intended now.
Its also very possible that you can craft Wands of Lessor Premonition now, but I'm not 100% sure I did all the steps to make that happen; I hope I did.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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The last module updates did a few big things, so please let us know if anything didn't work properly.
1). The rest timer is down from 8 hours to 6 hours between rests. Our data tells us the average quest is taking 25 minutes, 15 minutes for our introduction quests; but people could only rest every 32 minutes, so now you can rest every 24 minutes (one game hour = 4 minutes).
2). Dhedluck and Collinswood have been removed from the module, and we're in the process of removing little used areas as well. The goal here is to consolidate more of our quests around hubs to make it easier to get to them, easier to do a few quests together with a party, and concentrate the player base in a few more specific areas that we can better focus stories around. All the quests and resources in these areas are in other locations now, so actual content isn't lost to players.
Let us know if anything is odd here, as these changes may have caused unexpected bugs.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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v8339
We have a complete over haul of the Goblin Valley Quest (Moonsea Ride: Stonebolt Trail, quest giver Red Raven). The quest now includes a few optional mini-events to make it feel more like an adventure. This includes a very dangerous optional area - there is a red-tinted warning message by the transition into it so you know what you're getting into.
Since this is such a major revision, it'll largely feel like a new quest - some balance points and parts may need adjustments so let us know right away if something is off.
We did a full update to the Owlbear Quest (Haunted Halls). This includes a major overhaul of the loot tables and rewards to make it feel more like a fair risk-to-reward for a hard quest, and some new variety to enemies and a little more thematic flavour overall to the area.
In the future, there are two simple rules to remember:
NO SPITTING.
DO NOT CROSS MISTER MOLOCH.
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Lots of updates lately.
Changes to monk mechanics have been put in place to increase the viability of monks even in solo-play; monks are often a powerful class but can be very difficult to keep alive in a 4-10th level metagame like ours. Improvements to Wholeness of Body, Iron Skin (+2 flat AC) at level six, moving Ki-Strike up to 8th level, and giving monks Diamond Body (SR 12) at 10th level are designed to make them a little more survivable. These changes are open to feedback at this point. The "Pure Class Monk Store" which was implemented to let monks buy much more powerful equipment to compensate for their low-survivability has been adjusted to reflect these new changes. As with all shops, if you'd like to see an item in them though that you really want - let us know and we can probably add it in.
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/69271/monksAdditionally, due to plot progress made by players, the Storm has been pushed back, allowing new areas to be available in game and two new quests (Mother of Monsters and Bronze Works) - these can be found in the Stormlands, Rhimebound City. I like to emphasize that at this point, most the plot relevant clues about the nature of the Storm, what caused it, where it came from can be found in game without a DM even; clues are hidden all over in areas, quests, etc (many other clues have been given out already, and can be learned in game from talking to other players). We as DMs are waiting to see where players want to take this to further develop the plot and story.
The Quest List was updated:
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/47168/quest-list/5
(Additionally, all but one of our missing delivery quests is back in now. These quests are minor, but do give you a reward from walking to one region of the module to another, and hopefully add to the benefit of going out exploring/traveling in game.) -
v8854
- A few bug fixes. When reporting bugs, please include as many details of the issue to include area names. It cuts down tremendously on the time required to find and fix these things.
- Milantra, one of Elhazir's many daughters, is now properly working within her father's shop in the Noble District buying Azure Diamonds.
- All Giants, to include Fire Giants, will now be skinnable for a chance at recovering their heads. Please report any bugs associated with this.
- The House of Ash has seen a small update to their NPCs with recent IG events.
