This last weekend and my thoughts on DDO.

[Cowdenicus]

Preface, this is opinion, this is my opinion and should be taken as such. There is no imperical evidence of any of this, just one man, my observations and my thoughts, period.

I think alot of people had fun this weekend and some good loot was probably pulled by alot of people.

There were alot of issues on the servers though also. lag, long load ins and the such. This post is not all about those issues though.

My post is in regards to the population, and what they were doing. There was alot of lag but it was centralized in a few zones.

I personally think that this event could have been done alot better by making it a week long event, having alternate +1 loot and 50% xp days. Like 4 days of bonus xp, and 3 days of +1 loot.

You know like friday xp, saturday loot, sunday xp, monday loot, etc etc.

Also I fear that these loot events are a bit to close together. meaning the 1 year anniversary and this one. Also it is my opinion that there are not enough bonus xp weekends or whatever.

I personally like to keep a few lower level characters around, but am getting rather tired of running the same quests over and over again. The response to this is generally, dont run those quests. The problem is you will be sitting around for a while looking for a group or having no hits for your group with this tact.

Also I would like to see lower level stuff be done more, and the only way I think you are going to get people to grind those levels (almost coninuously) is to give more xp boosts.

I would love to see a total favor reward that would allow you double xp or a bonus 50% xp until a certain level (say four levels from cap). Just leveling up a new fighter recently I can tell you for a fact certain levels are pretty darn rough.

[EinarMal]

I always thought if you solo a quest on normal/hard/elite difficulty that it should scale somehow to reflect that. If I am level 6 soloing a level 4 quest on even normal can be difficult depending on the quest. Yet you still take the same xp penalty that a full group of level 6's would and this doesn't make any sense. Somehow they should scale your effective level so at least you don't take the xp penalty when soling quests a little below your level (since it can be still challenging)

Given how hard it is to find groups to do some of the "non-popular" quests and the lack of solo content (and I don't mean solo difficulty which gives joke experience) why not give a bump for doing quests alone since it is without a doubt harder to do?

I guess people might argue that people won't group anymore but that isn't likely. It is still much more efficient and cheaper to do quests in a group but at least you could make more progress on favor quests on your own since you could wait around for days trying to get a group for some of those.

[Citymorg]

I like the idea of the OP. I would like to see something like a 5th level of difficuty above elite for lower level quests, and maybe a favor reward to increase XP. For example, at 2000 or 2250 favor you get +25% or +50% to all 32pt builds/new characters created.

[Kerr]

XP bonuses on characters?

*sigh*

Tell you what. Let's just give at 2200 favor the ability to create a character of any level, any class, and pick from a list of 2000 items 20 items you want for free. Vorpals, banishers, disruptors, etc. It's ALL free.

Because it's not as all like the idea is to ACHIEVE something in a MMORPG game, instead let's give everything.

[Citymorg]

XP bonuses on characters?

*sigh*

Tell you what. Let's just give at 2200 favor the ability to create a character of any level, any class, and pick from a list of 2000 items 20 items you want for free. Vorpals, banishers, disruptors, etc. It's ALL free.

Because it's not as all like the idea is to ACHIEVE something in a MMORPG game, instead let's give everything.

I appreciate your comment. I am not talking about being able to create a capped level character with all raid items or vorpals, disrupters, smiters and banishers from creation. I have already accomplished quite a bit in this. I have 2 high level characters on seperate servers. I would like to transfer, but I can't so I need to reroll. I have done and experienced the low-level content endlessly. I would like a way to level a little bit faster to get my new characters to a level they can party with my other guildmates.

Who really wants to do all the low-level quests again and again everytime they want to make a new character?

[Cowdenicus]

XP bonuses on characters?

*sigh*

Tell you what. Let's just give at 2200 favor the ability to create a character of any level, any class, and pick from a list of 2000 items 20 items you want for free. Vorpals, banishers, disruptors, etc. It's ALL free.

Because it's not as all like the idea is to ACHIEVE something in a MMORPG game, instead let's give everything.

nobody said anything about items. Why dont you come to a server with some population issues before blasting people from your high horse.

[tekn0mage]

I've been levelling a character for nearly two weeks (playing 4+ hours a day) and have only gotten him to level 9.

By the time you do find ONE group to play in, it's usually a tough run. Taking 2-3 hours on a mission that should only take 45 minutes ends up meaning you only do one or two runs per night.

I'd like to see some bonus XP for lower levels, especially as population continues to drop and groups become harder to find.

LFM - CLERIC NEEDED

[MJNOR1]

Who really wants to do all the low-level quests again and again everytime they want to make a new character?

I do, that is what is fun and it is rewarding knowing that every bit of experience and favor was earned.

[GeneralDiomedes]

You spin that hamster wheel fast enough and eventually it falls off. I think the healthy answer is server merges, not increased XP.

[llevenbaxx]

I agree they should split them up too even if they do it as loot weekend followed up by xp weekend. Just seems like it would be more affective than making people choose between the two.

Gallanda seems to be a decently populated server but that level 8-11 can sure drag out I wouldnt mind having some kind of bonus to kick you through the slower times.

[Riggs]

You spin that hamster wheel fast enough and eventually it falls off. I think the healthy answer is server merges, not increased XP.

Indeed

[Deragoth]

You spin that hamster wheel fast enough and eventually it falls off. I think the healthy answer is server merges, not increased XP.

After reading the server merge faq on DDO-Europe's website, I'm not so sure a server merge would be very fun.

[Brieana]

The guild I am in is having a new toon week. (Excuse the word toon if you don't like it). Where they are promoting all (and I mean all no matter what server) To create new toons. Thus giving everyone a chance to level up their toons with many more available to run with.

We all know that most prefer the higher content because of the items pulled from the chests etc. But we have to work to get there. Yes that means running the same quests over again when we create a new toon. But this is a game and part of the fun is getting there, grouping and meeting new people and doing something that we all love.

If you want to run the low levels join us on new toon day June 22nds on Tharask. If you want to stay on your server get your friends/guildies to roll up new toons and have fun! Create characters outside your bounderies. Experience quests from a new point of view.

I am not saying that this past +1 loot / 50% exp weekend was a good experience as far as I can tell most found it to not be with the server down time and the lack of great pulls by most of the population. But we are at the mercy of the devs and technology of the servers and hopefully in time things will get fixed and go alot smoother.

Just my personal thoughts :)

[GeneralDiomedes]

After reading the server merge faq on DDO-Europe's website, I'm not so sure a server merge would be very fun.

Just the lesser of two evils IMO.

I'm not that attached to my character name that I wouldn't give up the incredibly fun time I have waiting for groups to form.

[Devorpa]

I have advocated elsewhere that there should be a favour reward point that once attained means that all your characters can open the quests on what ever difficulty they like first time. In that way, you would never have to do the quests with your new characters three times each to get elite.

I do not think we need more bonus xp weekends/weeks. There is enough content to level your characters by doing each quest once only (on elite). I have a caster who is now level 9.1 - has done every quest L1 - 7 on elite first time (except for the 'triangle' icons above certain recalictrant quest givers) and then moved on to the next quest on the list. We have a group who get together during the week that follow this approach (we use a L14 main to 'open' the quest and the party enters without the L14 entering).

It is very challenging - try doing stormcleave or redwillow with only L7 + 8 characters on elite - and it is way more fun that power leveing to L14 and then waltzing through the lower level quests on auto pilot.

Apart from ACTUALLY MARKETING THE GAME (Duh! its a no brainer that they should be actively doing this and Turbine is not doing so) ... simple things like this would stop irritating the player base (ie, trying to force second and subesquent characters to do each quest three times) and the player numbers may start to recover .... They do not have to corrupt the spirit of what they have created ... just make small changes to lower the irritation level.

If anything, the loot weekend showed that we DON'T NEED SERVER MERGERS .... they could not cope when put to the test. We NEED Turbine to find a marketing strategist.

[TechNoFear]

If anything, the loot weekend showed that we DON'T NEED SERVER MERGERS .... they could not cope when put to the test. We NEED Turbine to find a marketing strategist.

I thought it was the servers which had the greatest increase in population (offpeak and peak players on at the same time) that had the most issues (ie Khyber).

The high pop servers ran reasonably well (ie Argo) judging from the responses here.