Nights of the Dead 2022 - Feedback and Bugs

Yes, the cutscenes are still out of sync. What I have experienced, though, is that with the trained entity you can escape out if the scene is going way over, and with Altius he won't attack until you're out of the scene and sometimes not even then.

I've gone in there now once with a newb-ish (her low 20's) Vah Shir Templar, who has mad debuff abilities. That, and having leveled twice while in there probably helped me survive Altius the first time. I took out Raven by debuffing her while invis (and is it my imagination, or is the same "let's break the player character's Stealth before they finish casting anything! " glitch still in effect? have the Scouts forgiven any of the Powers yet?), then debuffed her group ASAP before the li'l -- bastions -- could gank me. I shudder to think what the Maze would be like for someone not a debuffer... :-/

The new "Spirit of the Night" feature this year maxxed out at 20; so far, it hasn't devalued due to time. Just as well, because while I was able to get Altius (who had come in after the cut-away at the third from the end line, then black screen for entirely too long [apparently Esc doesn't help there, as far as I could tell; I was pushing every key imaginable, hoping not to become Purina Werewolf Chow(TM) by the time I could see anything again], then him getting his smelly breath in my face), when I did it the second time...well... X-P

The cut-scene for the scaredy-Gnome worked about as per usual the second time, almost like the old days (of last year; the first time, I had to Esc after about 30+ seconds); I have yet to have Altius work now after 3 tries. Thankfully, I also leveled twice while in the Maze the second time; got Raven and her gangers using the same method as before; everything was working fairly well, both for me and for the mechanics, until the center again. Most recently, at least his monologue started at the beginning, but he himself did not move. He didn't flinch, he didn't barf, he didn't get glowy eyes, he didn't start getting bigger, etc. Nothin'.

When that cut-scene ended and I finally got a screen back, it was like the other 2 times I'd tried him, in this Nightmarish Return; he stood there, staring at me, not being able to be attacked. The first time in Nightmarish, I just went back to the entrance of the maze to pick up the Gnome's stuff. The second and third times, I just right-clicked and left the center, back to the corridor just outside. In none of those times have I been pursued outside the center by Altius. :-/

Uwk
who just wishes he'd hurry up and let me kill him, already...this is taking way too much time (surely, you folks saved the Maze version from previous years, just in case something went awry with this experiment this year so you could put it back the way it was? Surely...?! :-/)

Bleedin' hells. Finally got Altius to wolf out, the FOURTH TIME going into the center. Monologue and cut-scene started up, again nowhere near as smoothly as in prior years, as irritating as it was; he outran his subtitles considerably, but at least he was wincing, barfing, glowing, growing, etc. Then about, oh, 20-30+ seconds of black screen afterwards; when that came back, he was trying to make PWChow(TM) out of me again. With debuffs and heals, I was able to survive him and finally finish my job of killing him, but it took forever. Note to those who say "run" or "back off" or "go into Defense Stance with the click of a button," in the past, that's when I'd deliberately jump in his football outfit jockstrap to kill him faster before he could Hulk out, and it always worked for me. Tried running, backing off, etc. the first time I got him with this gal, and it didn't do any good one way or another. /shrug

At any rate, yeah, I finally was able to make it work, after spending way too much time on it and not knowing whether or not I could predict trust the behavior of the mechanics. This is now the least amount of fun I've had since the Headless Horseman quest starting in Antonica (is that still buggier than the Amazon rainforest?) and the two times I've tried "rescuing" Herself's "granddaughter." X-P

It's too bad, 'cause this was one of the big quests that I could count on to be consistently fun.

Uwk
who wonders: was this actually as a side-effect of the tweaks to the Lore and Legend server? If so, why? :-/

The cut-scenes certainly are out of sync. It's almost as though the timing is taking into consideration players/characters in different instances, considering how varied the discrepancies are. Since it is a different hitch each time, it suggests an outside influence.

Anyway, since you can [Esc] out of the Entity scene, and it is not nearly as dangerous as Altius, the times when the Entity drifts your direction before the scene releases isn't critical (though it would be nice to see the Gnome running "OMG Train!")

As to Altius, again - he has never actually attacked before the scene released me, even if he starts in aggro immediately (which is what I remember from previous years). Even if it goes for a long, long black screen, Altius "begins" when the scene releases, so that much is nice. Even if I'm in panic mode because the black screen is dragging on and on. I have, as mentioned by others, had him not trigger his sequence so that when I get out of the cut-scene he's still human and unattackable. Yes, you can go to the start and shlep all the way back. Certainly helps with knowing the maze layout... but.

Oh, absolutely; it's the only thing that keeps the time expenditure down, though I do wish there were more short-cuts...like the "cul-de-sac" hedge wall by the "Old Man on the Porch" zombie after you kill him? It'd been nice if that section had opened up...oh well. ;->

I freaked about that Maze (I freak about having to go horizontally through most mazes; it's why I don't do a lot of instances) when I first did it, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, until I found an excellent map of it, probably by Brasse, bless her ginger Dwarven heart. I do infinitely better with mazes if I have a way to look down on it from above, vertically.

Uwk
who wonders: if it is just random (and/or perhaps dependent at least slightly on the player's computer's response time?), maybe they did try to take it out, finally, and it wasn't going without a fight? :-/

My internet speed today has been in the kilobits per second. I'm paying for megabits per second.

Ok, never had an issue with my SK:

Tried Hedge Hollow today on my Beastlord...3 times I've had to leave the centre of the maze and re-enter to get a cutscene and get Altius to become aggro. Also(not sure if the previous is caused by BL or not), my warder ALSO changed into a werewolf. Pretty sure that's not supposed to happen. After continuing running this on my BL, no gleaming chest either (and before anyone tries to explain to me how to do it...run it over 30 times on my SK without issue).

The second time, A Nightmarish Return, and no chest??

For those reading along who haven't tried it yet, or haven't succeeded with Altius the second time...usually, you get the lockpicks from Altius' mangy hide, you go into the "secret pocket" area (that often has 1-2 "shinies"), the one just before you'd dance with the suddenly appearing scarecrow in that little obvious pocket in the Maze (often there's a "shiny" in there to distract you when the scarecrow pops in) -- well, "just before" when you run through it the first time, that thing (for newbs: there's a third "secret wall," like where the big Hedge Ents were hiding). Going back that way from leaving the center of the Maze, you'd get there "just after" the little pocket with the scarecrow. Not sure what the secret pocket's actually called, if anything.

But Mav, there wasn't a chest in the secret pocket area, containing the '80s shoulder pads, the Lost Necklaces, etc.? :-/

Uwk

BUG: Went to see the local Gobbo Candy Converter dude in Gorowyn with over 100 things from my pack pony. Got back:

26 Erudite Hairpieces
24 Halfling Stilts
22 Ettin-Headed Coins
19 High Elf Funny Bones
9 Ogre Tutus
and finally,
73 Candy Corn

I think that one's been spending entirely too much time with the Bristlebane's Day ones. X-P

EDIT: This is according to my inventory, in a bag that only had candies in it before. All my Bristlebane's mats are in the Shared Bank. :-/

And both my Log and the Chat channel review show him only converting 87 candies to something, and theoretically, they were all Candy Corn. X-P

EDIT: It might've been that my Pony had brought back Bristlebane's mats as well (I hadn't cleared him in awhile), but I swore I only saw candies in that inventory bag... X-P

Uwk

No Uwk, ran 4 times on my BL (to make sure). About to run it again (mainly for the gnomes quest rewards) so we shall see if it shows today on that character.

Edit: Nope, still no chest on 'this' character. Beyond a joke this entire instance now.

Sadly Nights of the Dead was not important this year, it was not part of the revamped holiday events (Tinkerfest, Scorched Sky and the Oceansfull Festival) we common folk should be lucky we have anything to do.
Lets hope they dont mess up Frostfell.

Hey Mavs.

I think there is another requirement to get the chest. I think you have to run the home city haunted house? There is definitely a second prereq. Maybe it's the Loping Planes haunted house. I can't remember.

To be honest I was relieved that it wasn;t updated this year after what happened with the previous three. For years now the traditional holiday events have been relatively quick, simple and available to all levels. You could dig out your low level under-geared alts and go have some FUN as a bit of light relief from the challenge of the main game. Now TPTB seem to have lost the plot. Suddenly the new holiday content requires max level, 'the right gear', fully upgraded abilities and a masters degree in raid level puzzle solving. Whatever happened to scaling zones? I quit raiding years ago to escape this kind of nonsense because it was becoming more like a job than a game. Now it appears that our fun, frivolous and light relief holiday content has been hi-jacked to provide extra content filler for bored end-gamers with nothing else to do.

And if that's the way they're all going in future I don't want any more of them updated!

I am very proud of how EQ2 has been able to provide at a minimum new rewards, recipes, and items to each of the holiday events, every year. I keep banging this drum because I don't see it happening with many other games out there. Our holidays are something special! But that's not something I need to tell all of you. That's why you're here, participating in these threads!

I wouldn't say the direction for live events, going forward, is away for scaling content, but I would admit it was not the focus of this year's additions to live events. The last two year's focus was adding Overseer quests, the year before was public quests. In between content focused features I try to flesh out other parts; collections, achievements, tradeskills, etc. What I add all depends on what kind of content that event already has, how long the event lasts, how long it's been since new content of that type was added - those kinds of details. That way, over the years, as an event grows, hopefully you'll find an event has something for everyone, not necessarily that everything is for everyone.

With that goal in mind, we looked at the plethora of play styles that EQ2 players enjoy, and it felt like those who enjoy the highest level range were less supported and less incentivized in many live events. So this year, we decided to take a look at that and add content there. Of course getting items with stats on it that high level players find desirable/useful requires the content meet a certain amount of challenge and time invested. That is often the hurdle that level scaling content cannot do so well. So, the dungeons were made with a static level, buffs, debuffs, attacks, etc. That doesn't mean that in the future we can't make lower level versions of these same dungeons available though!

Hopefully this little post helps explain our thinking, and reassures you that even your lower level characters will always find enjoyment in the returning events in EQ2.

~ Kaitheel

both haunted houses ( a city one in FP/Qeynos, and Loping plains one) are required to see the gleaming chest, where you loot "a lost necklace". Then that necklace is required in inventory to see and harvest the screeching box in Loping

Ah! You might be right; I've always run the Loping Planes mansion before the Maze... :-/

Still, that should be in a write-up somewhere (Zam?), because that's hardly intuitive at all. >:-/

Uwk

Loping Plains, yeah; for folks who haven't done it before (or so long ago you've forgotten; if I can, anyone can :-/) it's in the building where the Bartender is in Somborn Village. Hang a right once you get in; there's a closed door. Open it, head to the wall in front of you, hang a right, look down at that end of the table. There should be a bright orange box that looks like a Lament Configuration from the Hellraiser movies (or the "puzzle box" by the old tipping coin you need to pay the bartender in the city haunted house; same artwork). That box at the end of the table in Loping Plains will contain, on the first grab, a Screeching Box, a Blanket of Fog, and a Gnomish machine thing that turns things like fog on and off. Then the box "poofs away," only to return again like 30 seconds or less later. Harvests of it after the first only have the Screechers and the Fogs; the machine is a one-time thing. ;->

Get lots of both for a "proper" haunted grounds around a prestige house, or whatever.

Uwk

Undoubtedly it will, though I think I'll pass on the rest of my toons for the Maze this year. Next year, I'll be back with bells on to see how well you folks have hammered out the growing pains of it! ;->

(And by then, I'll probably have another dozen or so toons to make a full gross, and who will all need to run that... )

Uwk
who wonders: the schedule for the summer events? Will that be back to where it was originally, or will that be the new schedule from now on? Gotta plan ahead... ;->

I am not here to simply puff-piece the developers, or pounce on fellow players. That said, full disclosure: I am a software developer myself and have actually worked on persistent, multiplayer games (my paying job is not games, alas). Software development is perhaps the most complex undertaking we pursue as a species. You can have 100k lines of code and one misplaced character of any kind (semicolon, comma, alphanumeric, etc.) will keep it from functioning properly.

In order to relate data, I have to be able to think in five (or more) dimensions regularly.

Changing one routine (perhaps adding new code to handle, say, new sizes of numbers or new caps) so that the game works with new content can have unexpected results for established code that uses that routine. With hundreds of zones and thousands of quests, a team of developers some of whom cycle in or out, it is impossible to catch everything.

What pleases me about this year's event is not that it came out of the gate flawless (because it clearly didn't, and even now the cut-scenes are probably suffering from a subroutine alteration) but that the developers kept tabs on the forums and threads like this one to make reasonably quick changes to the code so we can enjoy our favorite parts of the game. People are going to be upset - after all I am guessing most of us are paying for this game and have for years - but they read through it anyway and make fixes efficiently.

(not a flying toy)

Thanks Kaitheel, your explanations always help to make sense of things. Yes, these holidays are always something special and we truly appreciate that . But there will always be a section of the playerbase that are only interested in content that provides BIS item rewards and that will never change. If you have to change the very nature of holiday events to be 'more of same' just to grab their attention you're probably doing a disservice to the event itself. Those people already get an entire expansion of new content every year while the rest of the playerbase only get what you have time to update for us in the holiday events. That makes those events even more special for a lot of people so thank you very much for the assurances that this is not going to change in the future.