Timbits... (April 20 2012)

[MadFloyd]

DISCLAIMER: There's no real point to this 'official' thread, it's just random spew. If I pass on a 'bit' of info that you find informative that's great. If I'm being a blatent tease or a bore, well... I guess you'll know to skip these in the future (assuming I do more :))

We're all putting in long hours at this point. Something about an XPack coming all too soon. I feel bad for all the new hires. It's exhausting enough having to learn new tools, processes, co-worker personalities, etc without having to hit deadlines and put in long hours. Oh well, that's life in the gaming industry.

Played three new quests today, all great stuff, but one of them is an instant classic.

A new dev (video) diary went live. I hadn't seen it before and was very impressed with it. Our new 'wilderness' environments really look awesome and I was happy to see that they showed well in the video.

There was a thread about 3BC loot in the General Discussion forum and I mentioned that it recently got an upgrade. It was nice to see that it seems to be appreciated.

I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack.

Played a new challenge today. This is the first one that takes into account feedback from the Let's Talk thread I started. It's also the first challenge to include a dragon. Wait, that's not exactly true; it's the first challenge to include one of our NEW dragons. We built a new dragon 'system' recently and while we're still ironing out some of the kinks, it's REALLY cool.

Thanks to those of you who provided feedback in the AC thread; it was reassuring to see that most of you are on the same page. I've asked for the thread to be closed because it's at 15 pages and, as far as I'm concerned, served its purpose (and I can only see it devolving from here). So to all of you who didn't get to post: if you had feedback that you think is different enough from what others' have already posted, feel free to PM me.

Have a great weekend everyone.

[Captain_Wizbang]

We built a new dragon 'system' recently and while we're still ironing out some of the kinks, it's REALLY cool.
.

tell us more! :cool:

[sebastianosmith]

I feel bad for all the new hires.

At least give the FNGs a weekend here or there, would ya? They'll stay longer. ;)

[Khurse]

Love the name of the thread.

One can only assume you're getting to spend some time cheering for the Sens...

[Coldin]

I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack.


I've really been waiting to hear more about epic destinies. Sounds like it will be a major part of the new leveling experience past level 20. Hopefully we get to hear more very soon.

[DanteEnFuego]

Guess I missed the 3BC update info. How do I get there again? Been so long... Thx for the updates. +1

[Cauthey]

Much love for ya, MadFloyd. Much love. :D

<3

[Captain_Wizbang]

Hey Floyd!,
Just out of curiosity, have you "old timers" initiated the new hires?

I can help you with a few pointers, especially for areas that have those nifty cubicle dividers. :eek:

[Zirun]

I went into Tim Horton's a week ago. Roll up the Rim's basically over, but they still had one XL cup left with that special rim. I thought, "Hey, why not? What could possibly go wrong with an XL coffee?" and bought it. Paid my money, thanked the cashier, and excitedly began the walk home.

As I walk, I'm staring at the cup. It looks a little bit suspicious, with plenty of spelling errors and misprinted images. But, hey, a winning cup is a winning cup, no matter what it looks like, right?

Halfway home, I'm sick of the coffee already. Things are buzzing all around me, and I can't concentrate worth a ****, so I decided to just dump the rest of the coffee out and roll up the rim right there.

Now, this is an XL cup with an XL rim, so working it to roll it up without tearing it is a difficult. I'm already home, but I still haven't managed to get all the rim loose enough to roll up in one piece. I sit down at my desk, in front of my computer, and continue trying. It seems to be going nowhere, however.

It takes a week, but eventually I manage to roll it up. Slowly, I stare at it expectantly as I go from left to right, revealing letters one by one.

The first letter: "W". Yes! It's a winner! I'm bouncing off the walls with joy! All caution to the win, I tear the rest of the rim up, revealing the rest of the text. Adrenaline pumping, I have to read it many times to comprehend what it says. Imagine my heart dropping when I see that it's not a 'W', but an 'M', as the text is all written upside-down.

And thus it read: "MadFloyd is a genie, and must do as he is told. Using this text, you may force him to go into great detail about any upcoming changes to DDO."

So, yeah, tell us more about these fancy dragons, why don't you? I so much so wish you would! :D

[C00LBR33Z3]

See now I was actually hoping for a some way for free Timbits and now I want some. I'm looking forward to the information on Epic Destinies and seeing how it will work out.

[Silverleafeon]

..I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack...Yes, when I saw that, I cheered. Much better than the other epic choice.

[Impaqt]

At least give the FNGs a weekend here or there, would ya? They'll stay longer. ;)


they are all getting fired on June 26th anyway....

[Aashrym]

I'll meet you here and trade timbits for tidbits, MF. :D

http://www.calgaryexpo.com/

[Galeria]

Awesome! What a fun read. Can't wait to find out about the 3BC loot.

[Kronos_EXE]

What is the Xpack being coded in? C# ?

[Rinnaldo]

...hoping for ... free Timbits...

How many Timbits do we have to collect to craft a Tim?

Thanks for the post MadFloyd, it's really helpful to hear things like these from a dev's perspective. For example, it seems like all (read: some of) the whining on that other thread asking for explicit details on Epic Destinies might be forestalled by the mere mention here that you WANT to share, but CAN'T. I think people can relate to that.

[Bronko]

You had me at Timbits. ;)

[Roland_D'Arabel]

Love the name of the thread.

One can only assume you're getting to spend some time cheering for the Sens...

Typical east coast centric attitude ;)

'Nucks aren't out of it yet!

[bhgiant]

Played a new challenge today. This is the first one that takes into account feedback from the Let's Talk thread I started. It's also the first challenge to include a dragon. Wait, that's not exactly true; it's the first challenge to include one of our NEW dragons. We built a new dragon 'system' recently and while we're still ironing out some of the kinks, it's REALLY cool.
This wouldn't happen to be a see-how-many-you-can-kill survival challenge ending in a glorious battle against a green dragon would it??

*pleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyes...*

[BitkaCK2]

Good stuff! Thanks much. Say "hey!" to Maj for us.

bitkaCK2

[ddobard1]

New quests.... new wilderness.... new Dragons..... Epic destinies..... well..... GREAT!!!!

[oradafu]

Thanks for the information.

So one of the future quests is an instant classic... Why do I have a hunch there's a bit of an evil smirk there?

Yes, thanks for the upgrade to Three Barrel Cove loot, again. While tinkering with the 3BC loot, could you raise the Wilderness level cap of level 8 so it matches Elite Old Grey Garl, which is level 9? Actually, there's a couple of Wilderness areas like that where the wilderness areas caps a level below the highest level quest on elite, such as Tangleroots and Sorrowdusk.

I've been curious about what exactly Epic Destinies will be, so I'm looking forward to the upcoming information on it.

I'm also curious to see what the Devs have done with our input about the Challenges, especially since I've been rather negative about the existing ones. I really hope that these new ones will be something that I'll enjoy, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

As for the new dragons, does that mean that there will be new dragon scales that drop? New dragon scale armor? New Epic dragon scales? New Epic dragon scale armor?

Thanks for taking our feedback about the AC.

[MsEricka]

I like Robin's Eggs more than Timbits.

Let the flame wars begin!

For those that don't know
Timbits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbits)
Robin's Eggs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin's_Donuts)

[Correlan]

Thanks MF,

You Tease!!! :D

On a serious note, This sort of communication from devs and QA is what we, the forum/vet user love. Taking into account our feedback and possible fixes for game issues, helps us to help you. ;)

p.s. Can we get some info on epic destinies right now? :D

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Hello, I have 2 questions :


Our new 'wilderness' environments really look awesome and I was happy to see that they showed well in the video.

Is it possible to implement wilderness into current DDO wilderness areas, too ?
Does the engine or what ever is responsible for it allow that ?

Because a "living, breathing wilderness" is something I'd like to see in the current DDO game as well; everything looks a bit too empty, imho, apart from the enemies, of course.


Wait, that's not exactly true; it's the first challenge to include one of our NEW dragons.

The dragon from the last event - was that one of them ? I noticed that it looked, much, much more detailed (read : more polygons, for example) than all of the dragons I have seen before ! The dragon looked very much more realistic, then. I found it very cool (albeit a little bit big ;) ).

It would be great if the current dragons could be replaced by the new model(s), too; this would be imho a great shift towards better graphic quality ! :)
However, since everyone is already used to these dragons of now I'm not sure if DDO would lose some sort of "iconic look" by replacing these dragons. I really don't know since I'm still so relatively new to the game.

[MichaelKindrhead]

just want to say kudos for this thread Mad, I for one truly appreciate the info you and the other devs provide.

[MichaelKindrhead]

[QUOTE=MsEricka;4416839]I like Robin's Eggs more than Timbits.



mmmmmmmmm donut holes..... <droooooolllll> ..... i really used to love robins but in the last decade or so they have all but disappeared in my area and the ones that are left are not worth going to lol

[Phemt81]

Have a great weekend everyone.

Thanks for the shared news, have a great week-end yourself! :)

[RTN]

DISCLAIMER: There's no real point to this 'official' thread, it's just random spew. If I pass on a 'bit' of info that you find informative that's great. If I'm being a blatent tease or a bore, well... I guess you'll know to skip these in the future (assuming I do more :))

Have a great weekend everyone.

(Guild): The Build Your Guild event is currently active! Be sure to help new and returning players level up and earn extra renown for your guild! See DDO.com for details on this event.

Hey Mad, thanks for posting these tidbits. Have a great weekend yourself!

[BrianTheHun]

Typical east coast centric attitude ;)

'Nucks aren't out of it yet!

They will be soon, go Kings, go! :)

[Phidius]

DISCLAIMER: There's no real point to this 'official' thread, it's just random spew. If I pass on a 'bit' of info that you find informative that's great. If I'm being a blatent tease or a bore, well... I guess you'll know to skip these in the future (assuming I do more :))
...

Who doesn't like a hot tease now and then? I mean, besides my wife?

[MadFloyd]

This wouldn't happen to be a see-how-many-you-can-kill survival challenge ending in a glorious battle against a green dragon would it??

*pleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyes...*

Sorry, this dragon is red.

[sirgog]

Sorry, this dragon is red.

I for one will be interested to see how you handle dragon scales and challenges.

Maybe a sliding scale - CR 5 under max party level drops scales only 1% of the time, 5 over max party level drops them 30% of the time, and some balance in between (with CR 15-20 dropping new 'regular' red scales and 21-30 dropping flawless)?

Just make sure that if you need to make new types of challenge chests to facilitate this ('Chest from a Red Dragon Hoard') that they cannot be put in character banks...

[bhgiant]

Sorry, this dragon is red.
oh... well then... I'll cancel the party then
/sarcasm off

I will definitely be buying these challenges JUST so I can face off with the dragon. I can't wait.

[BOgre]

Too early to tell I'm sure, but i'm interested to know what you were able to distill from the AC thread? What's your take on what was said, and more importantly, does it have any sync with what's being planned? IS anything in planning yet?

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Sorry, this dragon is red.

I take this as an indirect proof that the dragon from the event was indeed "a glimpse into the future".

If so, then I'm really looking forward to it ! This dragon looked really great !

[Monkey-Boy]

I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack.

Okay, it's Monday. leak something please.

[Galeria]

. leak something please.

Eeewwww.... http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/w378/galeriaddo/shok.gif

[esheep]

I'm dying to talk about Epic Destinies, but I need to wait until a new 'roundtable' dev diary gets published first. Hopefully that'll be soon because (in my humble opinion) it's the most exciting feature in the XPack.

Nearly 2 weeks later ... and... *crickets* ...

I appreciate that you're all busy and all, but if you keep dangling a carrot in-front of me, sooner or later I'm gonna bite the hand.

[MadFloyd]

Nearly 2 weeks later ... and... *crickets* ...

I appreciate that you're all busy and all, but if you keep dangling a carrot in-front of me, sooner or later I'm gonna bite the hand.

< puts carrot away for safety's sake >

[Monkey-Boy]

< puts carrot away for safety's sake >

I think I saw that in a porn once . . .

[SableShadow]

I think I saw that in a porn once . . .

Some things you cannot unsee ...

[Monkey-Boy]

Some things you cannot unsee ...

Especially if it involves a midget, a goat, and a bucket of 1000 Island salad dressing.

[Gkar]

Nearly 2 weeks later ... and... *crickets* ...

I appreciate that you're all busy and all, but if you keep dangling a carrot in-front of me, sooner or later I'm gonna bite the hand.


< puts carrot away for safety's sake >


But I like it when you let your stuff dangle out there where we can see it.

Although it is better when you actually just give it to us instead of teasing us with it.

[SableShadow]

Especially if it involves a midget, a goat, and a bucket of 1000 Island salad dressing.

Ah ... bds9 ... /shudder




But I like it when you let your stuff dangle out there where we can see it.

Although it is better when you actually just give it to us instead of teasing us with it.

Um ... nah, I better not. :D

[Cauthey]

Some things you cannot unsee ...

No, no... ANYTHING you see can not be unseen. :p

[Failedlegend]

Well there goes our T rating

[Solmage]

Well there goes our T rating

Have you EVER used voice chat? :p

"This game is rated T for Teen - unless you enable voice chat, then all bets are off" ;)

[MadFloyd]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

[Monkey-Boy]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

Hmmm . . . um . . . nah . . . NOT going there!

[maddmatt70]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

Beta is next Thursday and much of everything will be in there so what have yeah..

[Gkar]

Um ... nah, I better not. :D

Chicken

[Monkey-Boy]

Chicken

You know the difference between kinky and perverted?

Kinky involves a feather . . .

Perverted involves a whole chicken.


But that's all good as long as we leave they carrots and the midgets out of the discussion.

[SableShadow]

But that's all good as long as we leave they carrots and the midgets out of the discussion.

They may take away our carrots.
They may take away our midgets.
But ... they'll never take away ... our dressing!

[Taojeff]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

Is this about the beta for the expansion that MMORPG indicated today would begin on the May the 10th and be invite only. I thought if you were VIP and bought the expansion you would get to be in the beta.

[le_goat]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

Maybe you could give us a crypto-matha-graphical problem to work on until tomorrow?
hint hint nudge nudge.

[HatsuharuZ]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

What information will be presented tomorrow? I'm not too interested in spoilers, just the enhancements system and the druid class~<3

[Failedlegend]

What information will be presented tomorrow? I'm not too interested in spoilers, just the enhancements system and the druid class~<3

Indeed the addition of FR is honestly meh to me I've always preferred Ebberon...would have rathered Krynn but w/e new quests be new quests and I really can't complain about being able to slaughter more Drow... but the second ANY info is released about the enhancements system my face will instantly be glued to the screen

[Talias006]

They may take away our carrots.
They may take away our midgets.
But ... they'll never take away ... our dressing!

Sadly, I heard that spoken by Mel Gibson in his William Wallace accent.

The bad part about dangling carrots in front of a half-Orc...
... requires multiple halflings standing on each others' shoulders.

[MrkGrismer]

Is this about the beta for the expansion that MMORPG indicated today would begin on the May the 10th and be invite only. I thought if you were VIP and bought the expansion you would get to be in the beta.

No, it was if you pre-ordered the expansion on or before March 31 you are supposed to be automatically in the beta, implying that those that didn't might have another way of getting in.

VIP has nothing to do with it, as far as I know.

[Sillk]

Sadly, I heard that spoken by Mel Gibson in his William Wallace accent.


Typically when asked for an FOM, I'll reply in my William Wallace accent.... "You can have my Recitation, but you will never take my Freedom!"

Then just cast it anyway....

[Monkey-Boy]

it's almost lunchtime Mr. Floyd, put down the carrots and spill something.

[psteen1]

it's almost lunchtime Mr. Floyd, put down the carrots and spill something.

depends what time zone you are in!

[bhgiant]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).
Where's my carrot?

[Grailhawk]

depends what time zone you are in!

I think turbine is in Boston that means its now after lunchtime.

[stainer]

Lolth demands you make the announcement or suffer the consequences.

ALL HAIL!

[Psyker]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

Well....I'm eating pizza right now, so if you ask me its "lunch time". Lets here some details!

[Thalmor]

If all goes according to plan, the big unveil will be tomorrow (hopefully by lunch - perfect time for carrots :D ).

Man my lunch time is done, and I still can't find any carrots.

[Calozz78]

Mad, what time do you guys eat lunch? Im starving over here ;)

[Monkey-Boy]

Man my lunch time is done, and I still can't find any carrots.

True story . . . a few weeks ago I saw and old Asian dude at work walk into the bathroom with a bowl of carrots.

I never asked him what happened to those carrots, some things are best left a mystery.

[Thalmor]

True story . . . a few weeks ago I saw and old Asian dude at work walk into the bathroom at work with a bowl of carrots.

I never asked him what happened to those carrots, some things are best left a mystery.

Bathroom??? Carrots??? Mysterty???

There is one myster I don't need solved!

[MadFloyd]

Mad, what time do you guys eat lunch? Im starving over here ;)

I'm eating now... and hey, it's up. :)

[Thalmor]

After snacking on my carrot... I'll modify a phrase from a famous carrot connoisseur.

"Not Bad, Doc"

[Monkey-Boy]

I'm eating now... and hey, it's up. :)

That's what SHE said . . .

[SableShadow]

I'm eating now... and hey, it's up. :)

Mad carrot skillz. :)