Luthen
07-01-2007, 12:33 PM
While the norm of many posts of this nature is to rip Turbine and the Devs a new one. this is not one of those posts. Now I admit I have been party to "those" posts in the past and may very well be again in the future. For now, however, I would simply like to give some feedback and tips to Turbine and welcome my fellow DDOers to add in their comments as well. Lets, at least, try and keep this constructive.
Observations from a player:
Content:
There is a ton of content. Nowhere near what some games have but there is plenty of variety for anyone starting the game new. The addition of the "Wilderness" zones was a nice concept and a fairly well executed idea. Please continue adding more, and higher level, versions of this idea.
At high levels the game has become nothing more then Favor grinding (which can only be done for so many characters before it becomes monotonous), Loot wh*ring, and an endless raid reflagging process. While this has worked up until now it is going to eventually come to a head.
There is an excellent amount of quest material from levels 1-8 maby even upwards of 10. Beyond that it becomes a problem. Not that there is a massive lack in content. Just the opposite. There is a wealth of content. But this content can only be run so many times before it becomes a waste of time. For example. Once you have attained the favor and flag from the desert quests there is no longer a need to run them. Loot is far superior in the Gianthold quests due to their higher level chests. So other then being required to run these quests for a flag ever few days they are no longer of any use. My point is that the Dungeon developing needs to begin to look at alternative ways to make these quests interesting again. Also. Stop adding low level content for awhile. There is so much now that you can level past the content without having ever done it all. Please keep focusing on longevity of the high end players. Level 1-9 has plenty of things to do that are productive for them.
Introduce more favor rewards. Perhaps a favor tree much like enhancements. Choose a path of favor in a particular house and get different rewards in the branch of the favor tree. Perhaps allow us to "double up" on favor for houses. Once we've completed a tree the favor sort of resets or restarts (saving our favor for the overall whole but resetting the individual so we can work on a second branch of favor for that house which maby doesn't count towards the whole the second time around). Expand the higher end game. When you introduce new content which has level 14 (16 on elite) quests than perhaps you also add a few quests in older zones. For example: Adding in a "Raiyum's Revenge" quest as a 2nd tier of the Raiyum quest that can only be accessed once you have favor or have completed the first Raiyum quest. This also furthers story lines in many quests when we know the end boss cannot be completely destroyed. As well as adding in new high end content which doesn't need much changing since the templates for some are already in place. long story short. Increase the frequency of new high end content please.
Rewards:
The reward system is flawed in DDO. I do like the end rewards and being able to chose from a list. However I think that every single quest should have a pool, no matter how small, of named specific items. A couple unique items to each quest to add to the flavor of that quest. As an example: Hiding in plane Sight could have a unique item as an end reward of an equipable item which has some type of stat or effect and one charge of Otto's Sphere of Dancing (if you've run the quest this item should make sense to you). This would give players more reasons to run these quests. Making the items bind on aquire will also help avoid flooding the market with them. You can also make them the kind of unique items which only allow you to have one on your person at a time.
It has been said repeatedly by numerous players that the raid loot system is poorly thought out. I understand you want us to feel the need to run the raids over and over and over again to get what we're after but there has to be a better way. I saw one suggestion that made sense and would help prevent raid loot from rotting. Put 5-6 raid items in every warded chest but still only have two stones. Yes this will not increase the number of items able to be taken from the chest on raids but what it does do is allow chances for more items that may actually be taken. As an example from Velah: Docent, Belt, Helm, Eye, Delving Suit are the choices. No longer will one of the warded rewards be wasted if there is no Warforge in the group.
Stop compensating us with +1 loot weekends. I know this is not going to be a popular suggestion amongst all players but hear me out first please. The economy in DDO is way out of whack. Flooding the market with Vorpals, Paralyzers, Banishers, Smiters, Disruptors and the like is only going to worsen an already struggling economy. In many economies it's all about Supply and Demand. Unfortunately, if you continue throwing out loot weekends as you have we will be an economy not of have's and have nots but of have's and have mores. Trading in game is a fun past time and allows people to further tweak their toons or plan for new toons. In a market where the rare becomes the common... what then are we to look forward to? Please find some other way to compensate us for issues on your end. Or better yet... maby just be honest with us in the first place BEFORE something bad happens. We might surprise you with how understanding we can be if we're not treated like ignorant children.
Monsters:
Lets talk about the compendium of monsters in DDO. While it seems, if you count them up, to be quite allot of monsters in DDO there really isn't. What about some of the simplest monsters that never seem to be used. Basalisk? Now we have a use for the Stone to Flesh spell. Owl Bears? Soomething new for low level wilderness areas. Gryphons? Wyrms? there's such a massive list in the compendiums it's a little frustrating that we're limited, primarily, to Huminoid (2 arms, 2 legs) monsters and a variety of dogs and insects for the most part.
I am sure I have more and will likely add to this as time goes on but I just fealt like putting some thoughts down while I had the time.
Observations from a player:
Content:
There is a ton of content. Nowhere near what some games have but there is plenty of variety for anyone starting the game new. The addition of the "Wilderness" zones was a nice concept and a fairly well executed idea. Please continue adding more, and higher level, versions of this idea.
At high levels the game has become nothing more then Favor grinding (which can only be done for so many characters before it becomes monotonous), Loot wh*ring, and an endless raid reflagging process. While this has worked up until now it is going to eventually come to a head.
There is an excellent amount of quest material from levels 1-8 maby even upwards of 10. Beyond that it becomes a problem. Not that there is a massive lack in content. Just the opposite. There is a wealth of content. But this content can only be run so many times before it becomes a waste of time. For example. Once you have attained the favor and flag from the desert quests there is no longer a need to run them. Loot is far superior in the Gianthold quests due to their higher level chests. So other then being required to run these quests for a flag ever few days they are no longer of any use. My point is that the Dungeon developing needs to begin to look at alternative ways to make these quests interesting again. Also. Stop adding low level content for awhile. There is so much now that you can level past the content without having ever done it all. Please keep focusing on longevity of the high end players. Level 1-9 has plenty of things to do that are productive for them.
Introduce more favor rewards. Perhaps a favor tree much like enhancements. Choose a path of favor in a particular house and get different rewards in the branch of the favor tree. Perhaps allow us to "double up" on favor for houses. Once we've completed a tree the favor sort of resets or restarts (saving our favor for the overall whole but resetting the individual so we can work on a second branch of favor for that house which maby doesn't count towards the whole the second time around). Expand the higher end game. When you introduce new content which has level 14 (16 on elite) quests than perhaps you also add a few quests in older zones. For example: Adding in a "Raiyum's Revenge" quest as a 2nd tier of the Raiyum quest that can only be accessed once you have favor or have completed the first Raiyum quest. This also furthers story lines in many quests when we know the end boss cannot be completely destroyed. As well as adding in new high end content which doesn't need much changing since the templates for some are already in place. long story short. Increase the frequency of new high end content please.
Rewards:
The reward system is flawed in DDO. I do like the end rewards and being able to chose from a list. However I think that every single quest should have a pool, no matter how small, of named specific items. A couple unique items to each quest to add to the flavor of that quest. As an example: Hiding in plane Sight could have a unique item as an end reward of an equipable item which has some type of stat or effect and one charge of Otto's Sphere of Dancing (if you've run the quest this item should make sense to you). This would give players more reasons to run these quests. Making the items bind on aquire will also help avoid flooding the market with them. You can also make them the kind of unique items which only allow you to have one on your person at a time.
It has been said repeatedly by numerous players that the raid loot system is poorly thought out. I understand you want us to feel the need to run the raids over and over and over again to get what we're after but there has to be a better way. I saw one suggestion that made sense and would help prevent raid loot from rotting. Put 5-6 raid items in every warded chest but still only have two stones. Yes this will not increase the number of items able to be taken from the chest on raids but what it does do is allow chances for more items that may actually be taken. As an example from Velah: Docent, Belt, Helm, Eye, Delving Suit are the choices. No longer will one of the warded rewards be wasted if there is no Warforge in the group.
Stop compensating us with +1 loot weekends. I know this is not going to be a popular suggestion amongst all players but hear me out first please. The economy in DDO is way out of whack. Flooding the market with Vorpals, Paralyzers, Banishers, Smiters, Disruptors and the like is only going to worsen an already struggling economy. In many economies it's all about Supply and Demand. Unfortunately, if you continue throwing out loot weekends as you have we will be an economy not of have's and have nots but of have's and have mores. Trading in game is a fun past time and allows people to further tweak their toons or plan for new toons. In a market where the rare becomes the common... what then are we to look forward to? Please find some other way to compensate us for issues on your end. Or better yet... maby just be honest with us in the first place BEFORE something bad happens. We might surprise you with how understanding we can be if we're not treated like ignorant children.
Monsters:
Lets talk about the compendium of monsters in DDO. While it seems, if you count them up, to be quite allot of monsters in DDO there really isn't. What about some of the simplest monsters that never seem to be used. Basalisk? Now we have a use for the Stone to Flesh spell. Owl Bears? Soomething new for low level wilderness areas. Gryphons? Wyrms? there's such a massive list in the compendiums it's a little frustrating that we're limited, primarily, to Huminoid (2 arms, 2 legs) monsters and a variety of dogs and insects for the most part.
I am sure I have more and will likely add to this as time goes on but I just fealt like putting some thoughts down while I had the time.