Feldon It looks like a further exploit has been discovered in Dungeon Maker with regards to Rewards and/or XP. One such issue, specifically a certain debuff item that could be placed in Dungeon Maker dungeons to reduce the hitpoints of surrounding enemies, was corrected this morning.
The EQ2 Forums are failing to load, but the announcement indicates that Dungeon Maker rewards and XP have been disabled for the time being until an issue with them can be addressed.
Hi Everyone,
Due to some issues that have been reported with Dungeon Maker, the tokens and XP are currently disabled (set to zero).
As soon as we have more information, we will let you know!
Thanks! — Dexella
UPDATES follow after the jump…
UPDATE: An explanation from Lyndro (good luck reading it, SOE forums are working about 5% of the time):
Hey folks, here’s an update on what’s going on.
There is a broken file on live (The Amygdalan Protector). We’re going to update that file with tomorrow’s hotfix, but for the rest of the day today that creature won’t spawn in anyone’s dungeon. Pretty soon (Within the next hour hopefully), we’re going to turn back on XP and tokens. The only thing that won’t work as normal will be the Amygalan Protectors, which just won’t spawn.
Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
UPDATE #2 from Dexella:
As of now, Tokens and XP have been restored in the game.
Thanks!
~Dexella
UPDATE #3 from Dexella:
As we continue to work on the issues reported with Dungeon Maker, we will temporarily disable some items on Marketplace. These items include:
- Ammo: Builder’s Bodkin Arrows (50)
- Ammo: Builder’s Broadhead Arrows (50)
- Ammo: Builder’s Fieldpoint Arrows (50)
- Exceptional Self Repair Patch Kit
- Self Repair Patch Kit
- Totem of Quickness
- Rivervale Mudslide
- Demonicus Steaks
- Poet’s Palace: Item Collection 1
- Poet’s Palace: Item Collection 2
- Poet’s Palace: Item Collection 3
It was great while it lasted, but nerfing Dungeon Maker to the point where it is unplayable was a stupid move. People still want to get tokens.
My favorite post (which got retconned by SOE-MODBOT-2):
I’m guessing it was the fact that it was ludicrously easy to farm XP and tokens with big piles of mobs when running as a player character and not an avatar? I mean, XP in the hundreds of thousands at L92 (scaling down with level, but still giving up to 10AA per 10 run) and 500+ tokens doable in 10-15 minutes without using any exploits, just a lot of mobs to AE down.
No surprise people were actually running them with them actually being useful. I just hope any nerfs they do to it are reasonable rather to taking it to the garbage it was before.
Mod-2 has a hair trigger.
Yea IDK what SOE is doing anymore.
About mods…
SOE-MOD-02 banned me for 3 days for saying; be careful about talking bad about SOE or SOE-MOD-100 will ban you. It seems you can’t talk about them banning you either. Said I broke some rule about talking about mods /shrug.
I don’t think SOE know what they’re doing either. They seem to be making this game harder and harder to play. And I’m not talking about difficulty levels.
SoE has until August 28th…. That’s is all I have to say.
I’m sort of amazed it took this long. I’d noticed odd variation in the rewards back on Friday…
They are really, really not covering themselves in glory on this. Having this stream of blunders after what should have been a prime occasion to push the Dungeon Maker features does not say positive things about what’s going on behind the scenes. Most businesses I’ve known, pink slips would be imminent.
August 25, 3 day start with preorder.
I am glad they took it down until they can get the issues resolved, but seriously, it should have been taken down last week. I believe a lot of damage was done to the integrity of the leveling system over the weekend.
I think I read that Mr. Smedley believes that player created content is going to be an important part of Everquest Next. I think the Dungeon Maker problems show why that may not be such a hot idea. If you give players the tools to design content, someone is going to figure out a way to design for the least amount of effort for the greatest amount of reward. Just look at the names of some of the more popular dungeons, 100+ tokens in 5 minutes, ect.. That is why you pay designers, who actually have a long term plan for an MMO, to create the content and systems.
Allegedly the rewards are restored now. You’ll excuse me for not bothering to check it.
It really is a good idea, to let players design dungeons. Very retro too, like back in the D&D pen and paper days. However, the implementation clearly is a lot more difficult than anyone could have guessed.
Oh well.
@Kale : actualy my dungeon was more like 1300 token in 10 minutes but yeah, it’s was pretty ridiculous (and this was with a default avatar)
Kale said:
Really? This game has integrity in ANY system? I can level MUCH faster during a double EXP weekend than in any dungeon maker, especially while I’m leveling (the DMs are harder with lower level, typically under-geared, characters). Even without double experience, using exp. and vitality potions I could still level faster than in a DM dungeon.
Kwill said:
I totally agree. The problem is, there’s really not much more that you can do to “design” these dungeons than to drops mobs in a pre-made dungeon (cut and paste from a dungeon already in game) drop some NPCs and buffers down, maybe (now) add a “story” NPC
(though let’s face it, how many people actually read quests instead of just click, click, click, click, accept? Do you think many are going to stop and read a story if they don’t have to? Some will, sure, but most . . . I doubt it, but I digress)
and throw in some furniture . . . and that’s about it. We have no tools to add anything special to the encounter like having adds spawn during an encounter, timed detriments that need to be cured, curses, or any other script to make an encounter, oh, I dunno, actually fun? It’s no wonder people try to make the dungeon as fast as possible to get in, get your marks, and get out.
Let us design dungeons from the ground up like Doom did back in the mid 90s (yes, even before EQ1). It used to let us make *.wad files, designing the whole board from scratch. Doors, traps, trip wires, secret chambers, false walls and floors, tunnels, teleporters, you name it. THEN allow us to design encounters and affect NPC AI . . . that might actually make these dungeons fun instead of, “500+ marks? Cool. Run that twice I get the charm I want then I’m DONE.”
What integrity?
All 1-85 content is soloable. Heck, Protector’s Realm and Veeshan’s Peak can be done duo with mercs. It is not the players fault that multiple gear revamps + mercs + nerfs to mobs have made EQ2 a solo tutorial from level 1-89.
Frankly, being able to pay money and get a 90/280AA is not nearly as repulsive an idea as it was when it was first proposed.
Feldon wrote:
“Frankly, being able to pay money and get a 90/280AA is not nearly as repulsive an idea as it was when it was first proposed.”
Actually, i’d pay for that. Since there is no monthly cost and no incentive for SoE to keep players leveling up for months to rake in some cash, i cannot see why not. SoE has earned more money than a years subscription in 6 months by selling expansion packs and prestiege houses.
I’ve leveled up a few characters to at least 80+, one is capped and i would really like to focus on the endgame instead of running around in Kunzar jungle for the umpteenth time.
I wrote:
“SoE has earned more money than a years subscription in 6 months by selling expansion packs and prestiege houses.”
That should read “…money from me than…”