A Report from Japan

[honkuimushi]

I was checking out the Japanese forum and I found a post from May of this year that listed several requests from Japanese players and a response from Turbine to some previous requests. The thread can be foud here:

http://forum.ddo-japan.com/viewtopic.php?t=533

It is entirely in Japanese of course. Anyone who can read it can check it out. The second to the last response looked interesting, but I don't have enough confidence in my translation to post it here yet. If someone could confirm it, I would appreciate it.

I wanted to mention a few of the more interesting responses.

Some of the requests are quite familiar to us--

they want spears, double weapons alchemist's fire, holy water, tanglefoot bags, pole arms and slings
they think that rogues are too weak in combat and traps are too forgiving for rogues to get a group
they want the rapier animation to actually be a stabbing motion
they want quivers to show up on the backs of characters using arrows
they want monks and druids
they complain about the monster AI

But a few of the requests and Turbine reponses we fairly interesting. Here are a few that got my attention.

They want Many shot by the book.

Turbines response-- "Don't you think that's a little too strong?" Is a game where you have 1 ranger clearing the entire quest a fun game?" Thankfully, we've had a good discussion with Codog about this.



They want to change their hairstyle.

Turbine's response-- "A full explanation would take 500,00 words... Sorry, but it's just really difficult to do.



They want crafting.

Turbines's response-- "We're working hard towards a year end deadline. (However what year end isn't written.)"



Stacking is confusing.

Turbine's response-- "I see. I'll try to think of a better way(to explain it.)"



They want to be able to consume food directly from the bar menu.

Turbine's response-- "Paying first, then eating is a Stormreach custom."



They want to be able to pick the color of their armor.

Turbines response-- "Look forward to the end of the year. "


There are a few more, but I hope people found this intersting an maybe learned a few things. Unfortunately, it doesn't say who the got the responses from, but I figure any dev responses are a good thing, even if I have to get then from the Japanese version.

[DaveyCrockett]

Well.. are you sure that's Turbine (ie, DDO-Europe is Codemasters). The DDO-Japan looks to be Sakura. I don't know that you can take those answers to be from Turbine, so perhaps just speculation?

(my entire response is also speculation)

[honkuimushi]

The post was by a Sakura customer rep saying that they asked Turbine these things on behalf of the Japanese customers and that these were the Turbine responses. If you look at the bottom half of the page, the Turbine responses start with a T. By the way one of the complaints was that they couldn't post on the US forums and ask things directly.


After looking up a few words, I'm pretty sure that the second to last question is this:

Prestige Classes?

Turbines response-- "We'll try hard to make it happen next year."

If I've made any mistakes in my translation, please let me know.

[RTN]

The top list of requests are things that Turbine said they would look into. I'll add some more:

They want to try on things before buying from AH or brokers. (I'm assuming to see appearance)
They want lots of chat macros. (example given "$p1, hi" would do "<name of party member at top of party list>, hi")
Cursespewing weapons are too convenient, please lower the DC.
For AI, the examples given are intelligent mobs should target casters first, while oozes should attack randomly without regard to hatred.
They requested that you can't tab find what you can't spot, I wonder if they're the source of the change made recently? (this post is from May, as Honkuimushi wrote)
More quests with riddles and the content of the riddles should change frequently (request gave example of once per week).
They want guild emblems. The guild leader could upload a graphic, which members could apply to their armor and it would be visible.
"I desperately want to play an Artificer! You're too slow! Hurry up!"
They want to be able to lock hotbar positions, but still have the ability to move around individual slots.

A few more Q&A (rough translations).

Q) Adding Wisdom and Language skills would be fun
A) True, but it would require a game engine revision at a basic level

Q) How about adding Survival skill
A) This is to prevent starvation, etc. Stormreach has plenty of food, so there's no need to worry

Q) When will you add Monks and Druids?
A) We're currently working hard on development. Please wait with anticipation.

Q) There are lots of spells I want to see added...
A) There are three conditions that make adding some spells difficult:
1) Things that are difficult to compile the data for (Things that cause permutations to specific effects, or make them valid or void--<sorry, this one is a bit brutal to translate>)
2) Things that are unnecessary and could really only be used for a joke
3) Things like Fly that would take a game engine revision.

Q) Add different icons for different roles (tank, nuker, scout) so people can see more easily what type of character others have (since multiclass and class can be specialized and varied)
A) No matter what icons we might add, there can still be misunderstandings between people. The best solution is to talk it over!

Q) The way bonuses of the same name don't stack is confusing. Some kind of warning system for this would be nice
A) I see. We'll see if we can't figure out something.

You're right on the 2nd to last question, it is about Prestige classes. They said they'll do their best to get it done next year.

The "end of the year" comments seem clearly to indicate the end of this year. Probably Mod 6, although since this is from May, it might not be accurate anymore (especially on crafting, both monks and druids, etc.)

[Griphon]

"I desperately want to play an Artificer! You're too slow! Hurry up!"

QFT

Too.. TRUE!

[MysticTheurge]

The "end of the year" comments seem clearly to indicate the end of this year. Probably Mod 6, although since this is from May, it might not be accurate anymore (especially on crafting, both monks and druids, etc.)

Given that Turbine was also telling us the "end of the year" for those things in May and we have more recent information saying "Nope, probably not this year" I wouldn't get your (in the general sense of 'you') hopes up.