A cry for help

[Enerdhil]

Hello everyone. For a long time i was just spectating how game is dying (is it my 1st post after 4 years of playing only with current account? lol). Every year there's less and less players, sooner or later there'll be none. Last days my guild seems to be semi dead, so i spend time on looking for new players. I'm not interested in starting next forum battle, just want to share few ideas i came up with. You can agree, disagree, i don't care, just want to highlight a problem. Usually i'm not reading forum, maybe i'll just repeat after someone. English isn't my mother tongue, so forgive me grammar mistakes etc, i hope my messange will be at least understandable. Numbers are only to point diffrent aspects of my post, they're not an order.

To devs. At first you must finally understand one thing. I know it can be ununderstandable for you, but f2p newbies are your future. I know it's your job, not charity organisation, but way straight ahead to money is not always the best way to money. Newbies always can find game amazing and decide to pay for vip. F2Ps always can become vip to reward you for your work. I know a lot of players with all content unlocked, but still paying vip just to enjoy the game, just to help you keep the game on. And, on the other hand, even current vips wont pay subscription for dead game, where they got noone to play with. You can think only about ppl paying you (and i got nothing against, as i said it's not charity), but they wont pay you forever, they need other ppl to quest with, to run things they wanna do. F2Ps/newbies are the easiest way to fill servers. It will please vips, they'll be able to finally enjoy their unlimited quest access, and maybe some f2ps will choose to become vip just to enjoy things they see a huge amount of players is running. Or (it's popular strategy) when they'll see sale for something cool, they can spend few $s to add turbine points. But nobody will pay for game with 10 players online, and nobody will even play game like that. 5 LFMs wont encourage anyone.

1. We all enjoy new content, but it's really not the only thing we expect from game. Less new stuff, more fixing bugs, lags etc., they're the reason why people are leaving. We don't have a lot of new players, so you must work harder on keeping here the old ones. Players are crying for it, not for more packs, more items, but for chance for normal game, without problems. Is few years not enough to fix few bugs? I can understand not everything can be fixed easly and sometimes it'll take incredible amount of time wasted on it (i love old mabar, but i can forgive you not spending few months on just fixing it and doing other things instead), but there's a lot of other problems you can fix easly and you just ignoring it. Many times your community felt abandoned, don't let us think the only thing you're thinking about is how to make some money by releasing new p2p content. I understand you have to make money to not loose your employment, but because of that paradoxically you're making less money cause there's less and less players.

2. "These forums are open for posting and meeting other players! Note: Forums outside of this category may require Premium or VIP account status to access."

Some rights on forum only for p2p/premium players. Really? Really, really, really? Is it still middle ages or already XXI century? Do you think your game is so awesome, the only on the world that people will pay just to share their ideas on forum? It's ridiculous. There's over thousand other games, new players wont ask you for help, wont pay just to ask few questions about game on forum. Server forums are almost dead - if someone want to look for raid party, communicate with server mates, they got no chance to do it if they're not vips/premium. It's one more reason why people are leaving. Is having forum something so exceptional that we have to pay to use it? Are you afraid about forum spammers? Trust me, they're not going to waste their time on spamming unknown mmo forum.

3. Advertising. DDO is awesome, exceptional game. thats why we're playing. Let world know about it. If you got no cash for banners there's a lot of other ways to tell the others about great work you made by creating this game. I wrote few words on random forum for mmo players, described few quests and in few days i found few new players. I dont know - they'll stay in game or abandon, but at least they're here, they're testing it! We need new players, cause when there's no new ones every time someone leave the game it's approaching shut down of all servers. Even with bugs, lags, not balanced classes we've got a lot of unique things in ddo we can be proud about, we can convince new players to come here. But we have to do it, not simply wait for them with hope they'll find us alone.

4. No more crafting system based on Q/raid or only one more for end game/expected highest lvl ever. It's really cool to have new stuff and everyone will **** in pants after new +50 greataxe, but do we really need it? Every time you release anything part of game is dying. Alchemicals are dead, it's hard to find party even for one lob/ma run for favor. GS are semi dead, just because they're still useful for TRing. Thunder-forged are dying, it's possible, but not easy to find party for t-holme raids. We dont need dead craft every 2 character levels.

5. Crafting hall upgrade. Universal crafting today is not really cool, especially for epics. It's not bad system, can be handy for all classes/builds, but it's outdated. It still can be cool, we can see a lot of players (especially new ones, without access to all packs with op items) crafing in house K crafting hall, but it have to be usefull! Maybe not op, but at least able to compete with random stuff we find in chests.

6. Old epic system (item+shard+seal+scroll). I find it really great, but now it's only waste of time. It was amazing to farm them, spend our time on working on them. It gives a lot of involvement and let us simply be proud of our items more than farming 1 quest for op items beating old epics in every way (even in drop chance). I'm not asking about improving them. Improve seal/shard drop, add random to 20th quest reward, let us exchange them for even 10 others. Anything, just make doing old epic gear easier (but not too easy) and ppl will start running carnival/sentinels/fens again, maybe not farming, but at least single run from time to time. If they'll be easier to create they still can be useful on low epic lvls/while ERing and old content will have new life, especially for players without all packs. (I think i would be nice to see new pack based on old system, but i guess it will be too much for you, dear devs)

7. No more op items. Like in 6, they make half of quests not worth running. Even worse - it lets everyone solo everything, one more reason why lfms are dead. Leaving op items in chests is really not the only reason why ppl can buy and enjoy new content/quests.

8. No more class passes. It's really the thing you dont know how to do. Doing one class op doesnt mean it's balancing anything. Game got less sense, some class are weaker, other stronger, but it's fun! Not all classes have to deal high dmg to let us enjoy playing them. Only soloers/zergers need dps on every class. It's about options, different styles, not about beging able to kill everything. For example bard now is not really bard, just one more... i don't know... fighter with wiz levels? Barbarian with healing? Really? Thats next reason why lfms are dead, balanced party is no longer needed.

9. Ultrazergers will hate me, but... It's time to increase xp per level! Lower it for life 1-3, increase for further ones so newbies got easier beginning and ppl with a lot of packs will have to run them. You can say there's elite streak and it's easier to lvl up, but holy ****, you know newbies running elites? They even cannot open it with streak, and i'm sure they wont be able to run it. Of course they can run elite, but wait a second, there's nobody to run with. For example i got all packs and g tome of learning on my main toon. It's enough for me to reach 20 by running everything once and still have to abandon few packs on way to 20 without any xp potion on. I know a lot of ppl TRing from 1-20 in 2 days with potion on skipping 75% of game packs. More xp per level will make TR farmers angry, but ppl will run less popular packs, more difficulties (like hard, normal for 1st time bonus), maybe even some s/r/e in wilderness. Newbies will enjoy it, really. Think about your first f2p accounts when you farmed almost everything for xp. New players got nobody to run with if it's not elite. There'll be a lot of things to run even for ppl not able only to zerg through elites (to be honest i'm zerging through elites, but i know others got not enough packs to do it and can enjoy other difficulties too). MultiTRs will also buy tomes of learning, xp potions, it's more $s for you, devs!

10. Nerf streak. It's cool thing, but it force ppl to run only elites. Reasons why you should do it are above. In fact you can leave streak in current look for 1st life toons, but i guess it'll be not easy to do it from technical side of doing it, so i can understand nerfing it for everyone. On the other hand you can add bonus for ppl in party (there was buddy weekend). Maybe lesser bonus (like, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15), but make it permanent.

11. Nerf everything or... improve elite difficulty. Add hp, saves, bonuses, let elite be elite if you cannot nerf classes, prr etc. Last days i spend on running with total newbies (i must admit some of them fall in love in game, one bought vip after 1 day playing! we really have awesome game, we don't have to watch lowering population). It was surprising for me, but they enjoy explorating game on normal. It's difference between noobs and newbies - noobs want to feel powerful when they're not. We've got other difficulties, not only elite. I still remember days, when nobody believed it's possible to run in the flesh or acute delirium at level. Now ppl can even solo it with streak. It'll not only give us challange, but bring lfms alive cause ppl will HAVE TO look for party to finish elite run. Soloers can run other difficulties, elite have to be tough for us. Let it be party difficulty, force ppl to look for party. Delete stupid quest scalling, leave it at level of full party. I heard something about reaper difficulty - it's terrible idea. How are you going to convince players to run it? +120% xp bonus for 1st reaper run, so after TR we'll have to run 10 quests to reach lvl 20? Joke.

12. Merge few servers. Do we need 10 dead servers like wayfinder instead of 3 with high population? When someone new join the game and he see empty servers he leaves. Nobody will play ddo if there'll be empty servers only. Let new players see that game is alive, let old ones dont look whole day for party for quests or soon there'll be nobody left. We really, really need less number of higher populated servers, it'll satisfy everyone. If population will grow you always can bring new server with free transer option to new one, but atm population is lower and lower.

13. Delete cargo buffs. New ones are awesome, maybe a little op if we speak about previous ones, but letting us use both at the same time it's joke. With cargo buffs we can run korthos with 41 resistances (30 cargo res, 5 new res, 6 ranger pl). It makes everyone almost immune for all not cc/untyped/force spells in game. Casters are not affecting us. It makes game much easier and making resistance spell (one of the more important ones) totally useless. It'll affect not only game difficulty, but also class balance (op barbarian will be a little bit less cool without res, when casters will be able to buff themselfs).

14. Now, this is important, i'm not asking about 100 new quests, even 4 (like random pack) will be enough. When i was starting max lvl was 20 and last f2p quest was lvl 12 lordsmach chain and delirium&acid wit (i'm not counting in the demons den cause nobody were running it). Now we've got cool lvl 16 f2p pack placed in harbor, but it's not enough. We need something on lvl 17-20 with epic version and epic tokens, let new player reach lvl 20 and let them enjoy some epic levels. It's not easy to reach lvl 20 if they got 3 lvl 12 quests, 4 lvl 15 and 4 lvl 16. Do you think someone will run every day lords of dust for a month? They'll get bored and give up with game. And if they'll reach lvl 20, do you think they'll farm tokens in 3 quests (they're not dropping in beyond the rift if i remember well, but i can be wrong)? 60 lod en runs to TR? Or maybe we should let them enjoy epic levels and reach 28 (6 600 000xp) by farming all time 4 quests? We really need new f2p quests near lvl 20 with epic version and tokens they can exchange for heroic hearts of the wood. My subjective opinion - 3Q + raid (lvl 17 can be good idea, so streak will not affect players with ed on - it'll make streak friendly run harder) based on delirium style (delirium, acute, terminal) can be something really amazing. Deliriums are one of my favourite quests, they're interesting, they're tough, they're crazy and creative. It's really nice way to show newbies that we've got really various content, not only slaying kobolds.

15. Challenges. I hate them, but i find them interesting part of the game, now totally abandoned by players. I see few options:
- more free tokens per day or even transfer it to f2p content. It can be one more place to look for xp for newbies/f2ps
- balance/improve xp for runs after 1st one. It's odd that 1st run with all stars can give gives huge amount of xp and next ones are giving few k even on max CR. Is there 1st time bonus for every cr, or nice xp is only once per life? I've got no idea how it works, but better xp will bring more ppl to house c
- lower objectives for challanges with extractors. it's almost impossible to hit 6* in all of them
- you can add few more items gained from challanges rewards (but not op). for me it's not really important, but it can be one more reason why ppl can run them (both - looking for xp and gear)

16. Plat. Plat/as balance is broken and i don't think you can fix it without deleting whole as system and lot of other things, what, of course will never happen. But if plat is no longer usefull, you can at least improve plat cap and plat max prizes on ah, so few more items will appear on ah. And the most important thing - improve plat cap for f2ps. I found few new players and i'd like to show them friendly face, give them plat to buy pots, hirelings, stuff they'll need to run, especially when they're running alone cause there's no lfms in their lvl range. And i'm not able to do it, on lvl 1 i cannot give them even few k plat. I know it's only about spending dolar or two to become premium, but totally 1st timers wont do it after 10 min playing ddo. It's really something small, but can improve comfort for new players.

And if we speak about this - 1 auction for f2ps? When auction house is killed by as and nobody post on it? It's the way for new players to look for some items, even when they're not able to find by playing (like from p2p packs). Autologout after 10 min? It's less important, but do we need autlogout? Is there so many players online that we've to lower their number while they're eating something/going bio? My knowledge is based on wiki account comparisons, but chat restrictions for f2p? I'm not sure what restrictions we're talking about, but limited chat? Chat? One more thing that nobody on world got? Are chats so full or conversations that we need limits?

17. Contact with support. I can understant restrictions in in game support contact, someone have to be in work, someone have to help players, you have to pay him for it, but for example i was trying to contact support via www for a month. There was even no mail confirmation. Then i send ticket with different settings and i got reply from support. Now, is it reality or dream? Contact with support is bugged and support is not fixing it? What are you doing in informatics industry if you are not able/dont know how/too lazy to fix things like that?


To ddo player community. At the beginning i have to admit i'm not always patient, i hate not using brain folks (like asking is it ip when there's adventure active 10 min in lfm), but there're few things we have to work on (of course i have to work on them too).

1. Advertising. As i said before - i spend few days on mmo forum and i found few new players. It showed me that we dont need devs to make our game more popular. Ppl with skills can do our own trailers, ppl with erudition can say few words about ddo, everyone can post their work on forums/fb/pages. If devs are too stupid/too lazy we can use our own hands to find new players, to show them beauty of ddo, we just have to spend our own time not only on farming items in game.

2. LFMs. It's huge problem. It discourage both - new and old players. And it's our own fault. Usually i dont need anyone while running heroic quests, but i always set lfm, because i like running with you, folks (i've met a lot of awesome players on ghallanda, but on the other hand, few can hate me too lol). Month ago i got rogue in my zerg party, who died on already activated trap cause he was sure about his reflex. He told me thats why he's soloing and not playing with others. I've got no idea why he joined zerg party, but is it so huge problem to set own lfm, on own rules, if you dont like others style? Like zerg, no zerg, no 1st timers, all bonuses, quick run? You can find ppl loving your playing style and have some fun together. If you're running something for favor, is it so huge problem to let others know about it and hop in? Is it so huge problem to let others hit chest if they need something when you're farming low lvl items? If you can solo elite is it problem to let others enjoy free xp? Trust me, you can make someone happy, show them how friendly game can be, not just leave everyone behind and think about yourself. Nobody will keep game servers on for 10 soloers, we've to encourage each other to play if we want to play. Even if nobody will be interested in farming mucks bane, even if nobody will join - lfm panel will seem to be alive and it'll be something encourage\ing everyone to play.

3. Small things. Like opening quests. When you see someone looking for opener it's only few seconds to open quest for him. For 95% of quests is just accepting share (if you already made elite). I can understand when someone is looking for whole chain, but single quest? Cmon, it's moment to help and earn his gratitude. Friendly community is one of things keeping players in game. Bah, even if we speak about long chains - i'm sure someone op on 28 lvl can find 30 min to zerg through for someone who need favor/loot. I'm not telling you to do it everyday (in fact there's not many lfms like that last days, cause there's no many new ppl), but even once per month it shouldn't be a problem.

4. Basic courtesy. I can understand someone is not interested in talking while questing, but is it game full of 10 year old kids? You're playing with real people, not bots or pets. Saying hello/hi when you join/leave party is mark of propriety, it makes good atmosphere around game, even if you wont say anything else. For example i'm not picking up soulstones, guiding, saying what quest next, no any help for ppl too lazy to greet each other with one word.

Ok, i'm improvising, atm it's everything i'd like to say. Of course in 10 min i'll have 10 other ideas, but i think i'll pass posting on forum anymore, cause probably it'll change nothing. If we speak about "to devs" part it would be nice to hear someone read it (like: i read it and i'm dev) even if you're going to ignore everything i said.

Peace.

[Coyopa]

2. "These forums are open for posting and meeting other players! Note: Forums outside of this category may require Premium or VIP account status to access."

Some rights on forum only for p2p/premium players. Really? Really, really, really? Is it still middle ages or already XXI century? Do you think your game is so awesome, the only on the world that people will pay just to share their ideas on forum? It's ridiculous. There's over thousand other games, new players wont ask you for help, wont pay just to ask few questions about game on forum. Server forums are almost dead - if someone want to look for raid party, communicate with server mates, they got no chance to do it if they're not vips/premium. It's one more reason why people are leaving. Is having forum something so exceptional that we have to pay to use it? Are you afraid about forum spammers? Trust me, they're not going to waste their time on spamming unknown mmo forum.

This is really more about being able to control spam than anything else. I've moderated forums before where there weren't hardly any rules about what you could and couldn't say and it was a huge pain in the butt. This is why I don't do it anymore. I don't envy Cordovan, especially when you've got forums with lots of rules. I would bet he spends most of his day sifting through heaps of reported posts and, when he's not staying on top of that garbage, he's got to go through the rest of the posts to look for things that need a response from Turbine. This means he's got to make sure information gets from him to the developers when appropriate, ask them for answers/responses, and then make sure he gets those answers in a timely fashion and finally post back here. I know Cordovan gets talked bad about in other places and sometimes I'm not happy with him, either, but I'm not sure how many more days I would be on this planet if I had his job. It's thankless and never-ending. So, the fact there are restrictions put on the forums as to who can post, where they can post, and so forth, I'm neither surprised nor bothered by.

Also, I would like to thank you for taking the time to format your post and put some numbers in at the start of different topics. You made your post much easier to read than it would otherwise have been and I just wanted to let you know it was helpful and appreciated.

[Inanout]

Maybe the new dnd movie and Vin Diesel publicly talking about dnd will bring in new players.

[Kylstrem]

OPs thread could really be a Foundation of Discord. The ideas presented represent a Feast or Famine mentality that can lead one into a Maze of Madness. I think the Devs suffer a Trial by Fire when they are hired and then have to deal with all the spaghetti code left behind by previous programmers. But the programmers that make it through that Crucible come out stronger.

[Coyopa]

Well, I was trying to reply only to the one point you made about the forums, but now on re-reading your post, it looks like there's more I want to respond to. I'm going to snip bits that I don't care about.



1. We all enjoy new content, but it's really not the only thing we expect from game. Less new stuff, more fixing bugs, lags etc., they're the reason why people are leaving. We don't have a lot of new players, so you must work harder on keeping here the old ones. Players are crying for it, not for more packs, more items, but for chance for normal game, without problems. Is few years not enough to fix few bugs? I can understand not everything can be fixed easly and sometimes it'll take incredible amount of time wasted on it (i love old mabar, but i can forgive you not spending few months on just fixing it and doing other things instead), but there's a lot of other problems you can fix easly and you just ignoring it. Many times your community felt abandoned, don't let us think the only thing you're thinking about is how to make some money by releasing new p2p content. I understand you have to make money to not loose your employment, but because of that paradoxically you're making less money cause there's less and less players.
You know, it's easy to say "This can be fixed easily" when you're not familiar with the code and, especially, when you're not a programmer. I don't know whether you're a programmer or not. I do it for a living. I don't think these things you (and others) think are so easily fixed are that easy to fix. As has been said other times, their code is pretty much a confirmed spaghetti mess. Even if it's not, the codebase for this game is not small. Some things get fixed seemingly randomly because the developer working on one thing found the code causing a problem for something else and fixed it while s/he was there working on their primary task. They've confirmed this happens in several posts over the years. If the code causing bugs was that easily found and fixed, we wouldn't have a known issues list that seems to be consuming more and more of the game in the way "The Nothing" consumed Fantasia.


4. No more crafting system based on Q/raid or only one more for end game/expected highest lvl ever. It's really cool to have new stuff and everyone will **** in pants after new +50 greataxe, but do we really need it? Every time you release anything part of game is dying. Alchemicals are dead, it's hard to find party even for one lob/ma run for favor. GS are semi dead, just because they're still useful for TRing. Thunder-forged are dying, it's possible, but not easy to find party for t-holme raids. We dont need dead craft every 2 character levels.
Crafting systems are a good way to extend the life of content. I think the Shroud has remained as popular as it is not just because of the usefulness of the gear, but also because flagging for the raid is not difficult and getting to the raid entrance is not a chore. Alchemical crafting died as fast as it did in part because of the time required to get to the raid entrance. It didn't help that the flagging quests award terrible experience. I think, too, that it was released just before MotU and people chose to get easier-to-acquire gear from the expansion rather than mess around with a crafting system. Thunder-forged is dying more from all the duplication of materials that went on than anything else. I personally haven't bothered with it because I'm not interested in grinding out gear that I can only use for a couple of levels.


5. Crafting hall upgrade. Universal crafting today is not really cool, especially for epics. It's not bad system, can be handy for all classes/builds, but it's outdated. It still can be cool, we can see a lot of players (especially new ones, without access to all packs with op items) crafing in house K crafting hall, but it have to be usefull! Maybe not op, but at least able to compete with random stuff we find in chests.
First, Cannith crafting was pretty much an abortion from the moment it was released. It was clear it was going to be abandoned right out of the gate, all the pretty words from the developers notwithstanding. Second, you can't judge how many people are using the system by the number of people you see in the crafting hall in either House K or House C. I've got the full Cannith crafting hall on my airship and I know most people have it on theirs. So, if I want to craft, I'll do it on my ship where I don't have to put up with the lag-fest that is the crafting halls in Houses K and C.


6. Old epic system (item+shard+seal+scroll). I find it really great, but now it's only waste of time. It was amazing to farm them, spend our time on working on them. It gives a lot of involvement and let us simply be proud of our items more than farming 1 quest for op items beating old epics in every way (even in drop chance). I'm not asking about improving them. Improve seal/shard drop, add random to 20th quest reward, let us exchange them for even 10 others. Anything, just make doing old epic gear easier (but not too easy) and ppl will start running carnival/sentinels/fens again, maybe not farming, but at least single run from time to time. If they'll be easier to create they still can be useful on low epic lvls/while ERing and old content will have new life, especially for players without all packs. (I think i would be nice to see new pack based on old system, but i guess it will be too much for you, dear devs)
This wasn't that great of a system. It was fine when level cap was 20 and this was all there was to do at that level. It's not entirely a waste of time, either. There are still items that are worth having and are useful even at high levels. Granted, many are only situationally useful. If they're going to implement an exchange system like they did for the Menechtarun scrolls, it can't be too steep a ratio. Ten is pretty high and favors people who have been in the game for a very long time. I think three is fine. If you make it too high a ratio, then while people might start running it again, it'll just make getting the seal or shard you want that much harder. This is because all people are going to do is start hoarding every seal and shard that drops for them so they can get 10 to trade in for the one they want. At least right now, if one drops and people don't need it, they'll put it up for roll. Also, I don't think that content is as dead you think it is. Rather, I think the people running it are either soloing it or running it with people they know, rather than putting up lfms. I know I like to run EH Partycrashers, Snitch, Tide Turns, and Bargain of Blood on my level 28 bard/rogue every day that I have the time to do so. I find the quests fun, they don't take that much time, and the experience awarded isn't that horrible (it's not great, but it's not Blown To Bits/Power Play bad either). However, I'm not putting up lfms for these quests. I'm not willing to wait on anybody and I'm not really interested in interrupting what I'm doing to accept a join request, then share the quest, and (about half the time) remind people where the quest is.


8. No more class passes. It's really the thing you dont know how to do. Doing one class op doesnt mean it's balancing anything. Game got less sense, some class are weaker, other stronger, but it's fun! Not all classes have to deal high dmg to let us enjoy playing them. Only soloers/zergers need dps on every class. It's about options, different styles, not about beging able to kill everything. For example bard now is not really bard, just one more... i don't know... fighter with wiz levels? Barbarian with healing? Really? Thats next reason why lfms are dead, balanced party is no longer needed.
Now that they've started the class passes, they don't have any choice but to finish them. If they don't finish them, then the classes that don't get an update are going to become obsolete and unplayed. That'll sideline a lot of work and content all on its own. I don't know what you think a bard should be, but I don't have any problems with the class. Granted, I sing fewer songs than other people playing bards (but I am using Inspire Courage now, too). However, I had a Spellsinger/Virtuoso bard before the class pass and it had terrible dps. Part of the improvement to bard is the introduction of the single weapon fighting style. You are right that a balanced party isn't really needed. I'm not sure that requiring a balanced party would have the effect you think it would. I continue to play because, even on days I don't have much time, I can get online, run something, and make a little progress on my character. My week nights are like this. I only have 3 hours' free time after I get home from work Monday through Thursday. I tend to spend 1 hour of that time online on DDO. If I had to wait around for a group before I could run something, do you really think I would even bother logging in? If you do, you've chosen the wrong answer. So, forcing people to have a group to get anything done would just result in fewer people logging on. (Actually, I would log on, get my Daily Dice roll, and then log out.)


9. Ultrazergers will hate me, but... It's time to increase xp per level! Lower it for life 1-3, increase for further ones so newbies got easier beginning and ppl with a lot of packs will have to run them. You can say there's elite streak and it's easier to lvl up, but holy ****, you know newbies running elites? They even cannot open it with streak, and i'm sure they wont be able to run it. Of course they can run elite, but wait a second, there's nobody to run with. For example i got all packs and g tome of learning on my main toon. It's enough for me to reach 20 by running everything once and still have to abandon few packs on way to 20 without any xp potion on. I know a lot of ppl TRing from 1-20 in 2 days with potion on skipping 75% of game packs. More xp per level will make TR farmers angry, but ppl will run less popular packs, more difficulties (like hard, normal for 1st time bonus), maybe even some s/r/e in wilderness. Newbies will enjoy it, really. Think about your first f2p accounts when you farmed almost everything for xp. New players got nobody to run with if it's not elite. There'll be a lot of things to run even for ppl not able only to zerg through elites (to be honest i'm zerging through elites, but i know others got not enough packs to do it and can enjoy other difficulties too). MultiTRs will also buy tomes of learning, xp potions, it's more $s for you, devs!
This one is so wrong-headed. It used to require a lot more experience to get to 20 than it currently does. It was a chore. You banked levels and ran certain quests over and over. Even on my 3rd life characters now (who have greater tomes of learning, are using Voice of the Master, but are not using any experience potions), I run pretty much all the quests every level. There are a few I skip, but those are in the minority. I still bank levels on my characters (because I'm in the habit of doing that from before the changes to the experience curve) and even then it can be a chore to get back to 20. Newbies already have it plenty easy. Go take a first life character out and see how quickly you level and see how much content still hasn't been run and will be skipped unless you bank a level. If you think requiring more experience to level will get people playing in the wilderness, you're just wrong. Four years ago, I loved the wildernesses. Now? I would just run quests on elite again until I got enough experience to level - and that's what most people will do. Wildernesses were terrible experience four years ago when I loved spending lots of time in them (I capped Sands, Gianthold, and Vale slayers multiple times each on multiple characters each). They're even worse experience now. I'm pretty much down to getting all the explorers and whatever slayers I get while exploring and running quests in that zone. It's rare that I go over 200 slayers in any wilderness other than Reaver's Refuge, Gianthold, Vale, Shavarath, and Orchard (as far as heroic wildernesses go). Multi-TR's are already buying tomes of learning and xp potions. I'm not sure who you're kidding saying that that isn't already happening. How do you think people are getting a TR done in 2 days?!?


10. Nerf streak. It's cool thing, but it force ppl to run only elites. Reasons why you should do it are above. In fact you can leave streak in current look for 1st life toons, but i guess it'll be not easy to do it from technical side of doing it, so i can understand nerfing it for everyone. On the second hand you can add bonus for ppl in party (there was buddy weekend). Maybe lesser bonus (like, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15), but make it permanent.
I'm no longer a huge fan of the elite streak, either. However, you can pause it now, which is helpful. You could always ignore it, too. People don't ignore the streak because they want the most experience they can get in the shortest time. Even I take advantage of the elite streak because of the extra experience. If I get a newbie in the party with me, I'm perfectly happy to carry them and teach them. I'd rather have newbies running elite with me and getting a trial by fire of sorts because of the things they can learn quickly, rather than letting them run normal by themselves and learn the lessons slowly. Anything that encourages (but doesn't require) grouping when running quests is a good thing. I quite enjoyed that "buddy weekend" (I forget it's exact name). It certainly got me putting up more LFMs as a habit now when I feel I have the time to devote to a group.


13. Delete cargo buffs. New ones are awesome, maybe a little op if we speak about previous ones, but letting us use both at the same time it's joke. With cargo buffs we can run korthos with 41 resistances (30 cargo res, 5 new res, 6 ranger pl). It makes everyone almost immune for all not cc/untyped/force spells in game. Casters are not affecting us. It makes game much easier and making resistance spell (one of the more important ones) totally useless. It'll affect not only game difficulty, but also class balance (op barbarian will be a little bit less cool without res, when casters will be able to buff themselfs).
No, thanks. I only keep guild chests in the cargo hold now and that's only because I haven't been able to come up with the cash to get the permanent guild chest amenity. As soon as I can do that, my guild won't have any buffs in the cargo hold. As far as resistances, I don't think there are as many people taking advantage of this as you think. Knowledgeable veterans don't need the resistances because of their meta-knowledge. I've not heard a peep from my guild members complaining about the lack of those buffs. For a while, I did keep them on the ship. However, nobody really went down there to use them because it's a pain in the butt and it's not worth the time spent on the trip to the hold. However, I still don't want my ability to keep guild chests in the cargo hold.


14. Now, this is important, i'm not asking about 100 new quests, even 4 (like random pack) will be enough. When i was starting max lvl was 20 and last f2p quest was lvl 12 lordsmach chain and delirium&acid wit (i'm not counting in the demons den cause nobody were running it). Now we've got cool lvl 16 f2p pack placed in harbor, but it's not enough. We need something on lvl 17-20 with epic version and epic tokens, let new player reach lvl 20 and let them enjoy some epic levels. It's not easy to reach lvl 20 if they got 3 lvl 12 quests, 4 lvl 15 and 4 lvl 16. Do you think someone will run every day lords of dust for a month? They'll get bored and give up with game. And if they'll reach lvl 20, do you think they'll farm tokens in 3 quests (they're not dropping in beyond the rift if i remember well, but i can be wrong)? 60 lod en runs to TR? Or maybe we should let them enjoy epic levels and reach 28 (6 600 000xp) by farming all time 4 quests? We really need new f2p quests near lvl 20 with epic version and tokens they can exchange for heroic hearts of the wood. My subjective opinion - 3Q + raid (lvl 17 can be good idea, so streak will not affect players with ed on - it'll make streak friendly run harder) based on delirium style (delirium, acute, terminal) can be something really amazing. Deliriums are one of my favourite quests, they're interesting, they're tough, they're crazy and creative. It's really nice way to show newbies that we've got really various content, not only slaying kobolds.
Completely /not signed on this one. If you've gotten to 20, then you're dedicated enough to the game that you can and should be spending some money on it. We don't need more free-to-play quests at high heroic and epic levels. As far as whether people will run Lords of Dust chain daily? Yes, yes they will. They already do. I'm actually trying to add this into my daily rotation on my 28 bard/rogue. Tokens don't drop in Beyond the Rift because that quest ends in Forgotten Realms and tokens belong to Eberron lore (according to the devs). It's clear they wanted to reduce the availability of Tokens of the Twelve. In fact, for a while, they talked about obsoleting them entirely, but they got a lot of pushback and didn't do that. This was, in part, due to the duplication bug that was exploited so thoroughly by so many people. If you really think people are reaching level 20 (and later epic levels) without buying adventure packs, you are wrong once again. (And the delirium quests are hated by most people.)


15. Challenges. I hate them, but i find them interesting part of the game, now totally abandoned by players. I see few options:
- more free tokens per day or even transfer it to f2p content. It can be one more place to look for xp for newbies/f2ps
- balance/improve xp. It's odd that 1st run with all stars can give gives huge amount of xp and next ones are giving few k even on max CR. Is there 1st time bonus for every cr, or nice xp is only once per life? I've got no idea how it works, but better xp will bring more ppl to house c
- you can add few more items gained from challanges rewards (but not op). for me it's not really important, but it can be one more reason why ppl can run them (both - looking for xp and gear)
The challenges should give more experience and shouldn't penalize players so heavily based on their levels. Adding higher level versions of the gear would help, too.


3. Small things. Like opening quests. When you see someone looking for opener it's only few seconds to open quest for him. I can understand when someone is looking for whole chain, but single quest? Cmon, it's moment to help and earn his gratitude. Friendly community is one of things keeping players in game. Bah, even if we speak about long chains - i'm sure someone op on 28 lvl can find 30 min to zerg through for someone who need favor/loot. I'm not telling you to do it everyday (in fact there's not many lfms like that last days, cause there's no many new ppl), but even once per month it shouldn't be a problem.
Why should we open quests on elite for someone that we aren't planning to run the quest with? Let them go in on elite, get their head handed to them on a platter, and then complain because the quest is too hard and they can't find a group? That sounds like a winning plan!

[Lemdog]

Hello everyone. For a long time i was just spectating how game is dying (is it my 1st post after 4 years of playing only with current account? lol). Every year there's less and less players, sooner or later there'll be none. Last days my guild seems to be semi dead, so i spend time on looking for new players. I'm not interested in starting next forum battle, just want to share few ideas i came up with. You can agree, disagree, i don't care, just want to highlight a problem. Usually i'm not reading forum, maybe i'll just repeat after someone. English isn't my mother tongue, so forgive me grammar mistakes etc, i hope my messange will be at least understandable. Numbers are only to point diffrent aspects of my post, they're not an order.

To devs. At first you must finally understand one thing. I know it can be ununderstandable for you, but f2p newbies are your future. I know it's your job, not charity organisation, but way straight ahead to money is not always the best way to money. Newbies always can find game amazing and decide to pay for vip. F2Ps always can become vip to reward you for your work. I know a lot of players with all content unlocked, but still paying vip just to enjoy the game, just to help you keep the game on. And, on the other hand, even current vips wont pay subscription for dead game, where they got noone to play with. You can think only about ppl paying you (and i got nothing against, as i said it's not charity), but they wont pay you forever, they need other ppl to quest with, to run things they wanna do. F2Ps/newbies are the easiest way to fill servers. It will please vips, they'll be able to finally enjoy their unlimited quest access, and maybe some f2ps will choose to become vip just to enjoy things they see a huge amount of players is running. Or (it's popular strategy) when they'll see sale for something cool, they can spend few $s to add turbine points. But nobody will pay for game with 10 players online, and nobody will even play game like that. 5 LFMs wont encourage anyone.

1. We all enjoy new content, but it's really not the only thing we expect from game. Less new stuff, more fixing bugs, lags etc., they're the reason why people are leaving. We don't have a lot of new players, so you must work harder on keeping here the old ones. Players are crying for it, not for more packs, more items, but for chance for normal game, without problems. Is few years not enough to fix few bugs? I can understand not everything can be fixed easly and sometimes it'll take incredible amount of time wasted on it (i love old mabar, but i can forgive you not spending few months on just fixing it and doing other things instead), but there's a lot of other problems you can fix easly and you just ignoring it. Many times your community felt abandoned, don't let us think the only thing you're thinking about is how to make some money by releasing new p2p content. I understand you have to make money to not loose your employment, but because of that paradoxically you're making less money cause there's less and less players.

2. "These forums are open for posting and meeting other players! Note: Forums outside of this category may require Premium or VIP account status to access."

Some rights on forum only for p2p/premium players. Really? Really, really, really? Is it still middle ages or already XXI century? Do you think your game is so awesome, the only on the world that people will pay just to share their ideas on forum? It's ridiculous. There's over thousand other games, new players wont ask you for help, wont pay just to ask few questions about game on forum. Server forums are almost dead - if someone want to look for raid party, communicate with server mates, they got no chance to do it if they're not vips/premium. It's one more reason why people are leaving. Is having forum something so exceptional that we have to pay to use it? Are you afraid about forum spammers? Trust me, they're not going to waste their time on spamming unknown mmo forum.

3. Advertising. DDO is awesome, exceptional game. thats why we're playing. Let world know about it. If you got no cash for banners there's a lot of other ways to tell the others about great work you made by creating this game. I wrote few words on random forum for mmo players, described few quests and in few days i found few new players. I dont know - they'll stay in game or abandon, but at least they're here, they're testing it! We need new players, cause when there's no new ones every time someone leave the game it's approaching shut down of all servers. Even with bugs, lags, not balanced classes we've got a lot of unique things in ddo we can be proud about, we can convince new players to come here. But we have to do it, not simply wait for them with hope they'll find us alone.

4. No more crafting system based on Q/raid or only one more for end game/expected highest lvl ever. It's really cool to have new stuff and everyone will **** in pants after new +50 greataxe, but do we really need it? Every time you release anything part of game is dying. Alchemicals are dead, it's hard to find party even for one lob/ma run for favor. GS are semi dead, just because they're still useful for TRing. Thunder-forged are dying, it's possible, but not easy to find party for t-holme raids. We dont need dead craft every 2 character levels.

5. Crafting hall upgrade. Universal crafting today is not really cool, especially for epics. It's not bad system, can be handy for all classes/builds, but it's outdated. It still can be cool, we can see a lot of players (especially new ones, without access to all packs with op items) crafing in house K crafting hall, but it have to be usefull! Maybe not op, but at least able to compete with random stuff we find in chests.

6. Old epic system (item+shard+seal+scroll). I find it really great, but now it's only waste of time. It was amazing to farm them, spend our time on working on them. It gives a lot of involvement and let us simply be proud of our items more than farming 1 quest for op items beating old epics in every way (even in drop chance). I'm not asking about improving them. Improve seal/shard drop, add random to 20th quest reward, let us exchange them for even 10 others. Anything, just make doing old epic gear easier (but not too easy) and ppl will start running carnival/sentinels/fens again, maybe not farming, but at least single run from time to time. If they'll be easier to create they still can be useful on low epic lvls/while ERing and old content will have new life, especially for players without all packs. (I think i would be nice to see new pack based on old system, but i guess it will be too much for you, dear devs)

7. No more op items. Like in 6, they make half of quests not worth running. Even worse - it lets everyone solo everything, one more reason why lfms are dead. Leaving op items in chests is really not the only reason why ppl can buy and enjoy new content/quests.

8. No more class passes. It's really the thing you dont know how to do. Doing one class op doesnt mean it's balancing anything. Game got less sense, some class are weaker, other stronger, but it's fun! Not all classes have to deal high dmg to let us enjoy playing them. Only soloers/zergers need dps on every class. It's about options, different styles, not about beging able to kill everything. For example bard now is not really bard, just one more... i don't know... fighter with wiz levels? Barbarian with healing? Really? Thats next reason why lfms are dead, balanced party is no longer needed.

9. Ultrazergers will hate me, but... It's time to increase xp per level! Lower it for life 1-3, increase for further ones so newbies got easier beginning and ppl with a lot of packs will have to run them. You can say there's elite streak and it's easier to lvl up, but holy ****, you know newbies running elites? They even cannot open it with streak, and i'm sure they wont be able to run it. Of course they can run elite, but wait a second, there's nobody to run with. For example i got all packs and g tome of learning on my main toon. It's enough for me to reach 20 by running everything once and still have to abandon few packs on way to 20 without any xp potion on. I know a lot of ppl TRing from 1-20 in 2 days with potion on skipping 75% of game packs. More xp per level will make TR farmers angry, but ppl will run less popular packs, more difficulties (like hard, normal for 1st time bonus), maybe even some s/r/e in wilderness. Newbies will enjoy it, really. Think about your first f2p accounts when you farmed almost everything for xp. New players got nobody to run with if it's not elite. There'll be a lot of things to run even for ppl not able only to zerg through elites (to be honest i'm zerging through elites, but i know others got not enough packs to do it and can enjoy other difficulties too). MultiTRs will also buy tomes of learning, xp potions, it's more $s for you, devs!

10. Nerf streak. It's cool thing, but it force ppl to run only elites. Reasons why you should do it are above. In fact you can leave streak in current look for 1st life toons, but i guess it'll be not easy to do it from technical side of doing it, so i can understand nerfing it for everyone. On the other hand you can add bonus for ppl in party (there was buddy weekend). Maybe lesser bonus (like, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15), but make it permanent.

11. Nerf everything or... improve elite difficulty. Add hp, saves, bonuses, let elite be elite if you cannot nerf classes, prr etc. Last days i spend on running with total newbies (i must admit some of them fall in love in game, one bought vip after 1 day playing! we really have awesome game, we don't have to watch lowering population). It was surprising for me, but they enjoy explorating game on normal. It's difference between noobs and newbies - noobs want to feel powerful when they're not. We've got other difficulties, not only elite. I still remember days, when nobody believed it's possible to run in the flesh or acute delirium at level. Now ppl can even solo it with streak. It'll not only give us challange, but bring lfms alive cause ppl will HAVE TO look for party to finish elite run. Soloers can run other difficulties, elite have to be tough for us. Let it be party difficulty, force ppl to look for party. Delete stupid quest scalling, leave it at level of full party. I heard something about reaper difficulty - it's terrible idea. How are you going to convince players to run it? +120% xp bonus for 1st reaper run, so after TR we'll have to run 10 quests to reach lvl 20? Joke.

12. Merge few servers. Do we need 10 dead servers like wayfinder instead of 3 with high population? When someone new join the game and he see empty servers he leaves. Nobody will play ddo if there'll be empty servers only. Let new players see that game is alive, let old ones dont look whole day for party for quests or soon there'll be nobody left. We really, really need less number of higher populated servers, it'll satisfy everyone. If population will grow you always can bring new server with free transer option to new one, but atm population is lower and lower.

13. Delete cargo buffs. New ones are awesome, maybe a little op if we speak about previous ones, but letting us use both at the same time it's joke. With cargo buffs we can run korthos with 41 resistances (30 cargo res, 5 new res, 6 ranger pl). It makes everyone almost immune for all not cc/untyped/force spells in game. Casters are not affecting us. It makes game much easier and making resistance spell (one of the more important ones) totally useless. It'll affect not only game difficulty, but also class balance (op barbarian will be a little bit less cool without res, when casters will be able to buff themselfs).

14. Now, this is important, i'm not asking about 100 new quests, even 4 (like random pack) will be enough. When i was starting max lvl was 20 and last f2p quest was lvl 12 lordsmach chain and delirium&acid wit (i'm not counting in the demons den cause nobody were running it). Now we've got cool lvl 16 f2p pack placed in harbor, but it's not enough. We need something on lvl 17-20 with epic version and epic tokens, let new player reach lvl 20 and let them enjoy some epic levels. It's not easy to reach lvl 20 if they got 3 lvl 12 quests, 4 lvl 15 and 4 lvl 16. Do you think someone will run every day lords of dust for a month? They'll get bored and give up with game. And if they'll reach lvl 20, do you think they'll farm tokens in 3 quests (they're not dropping in beyond the rift if i remember well, but i can be wrong)? 60 lod en runs to TR? Or maybe we should let them enjoy epic levels and reach 28 (6 600 000xp) by farming all time 4 quests? We really need new f2p quests near lvl 20 with epic version and tokens they can exchange for heroic hearts of the wood. My subjective opinion - 3Q + raid (lvl 17 can be good idea, so streak will not affect players with ed on - it'll make streak friendly run harder) based on delirium style (delirium, acute, terminal) can be something really amazing. Deliriums are one of my favourite quests, they're interesting, they're tough, they're crazy and creative. It's really nice way to show newbies that we've got really various content, not only slaying kobolds.

15. Challenges. I hate them, but i find them interesting part of the game, now totally abandoned by players. I see few options:
- more free tokens per day or even transfer it to f2p content. It can be one more place to look for xp for newbies/f2ps
- balance/improve xp for runs after 1st one. It's odd that 1st run with all stars can give gives huge amount of xp and next ones are giving few k even on max CR. Is there 1st time bonus for every cr, or nice xp is only once per life? I've got no idea how it works, but better xp will bring more ppl to house c
- lower objectives for challanges with extractors. it's almost impossible to hit 6* in all of them
- you can add few more items gained from challanges rewards (but not op). for me it's not really important, but it can be one more reason why ppl can run them (both - looking for xp and gear)

16. Plat. Plat/as balance is broken and i don't think you can fix it without deleting whole as system and lot of other things, what, of course will never happen. But if plat is no longer usefull, you can at least improve plat cap and plat max prizes on ah, so few more items will appear on ah. And the most important thing - improve plat cap for f2ps. I found few new players and i'd like to show them friendly face, give them plat to buy pots, hirelings, stuff they'll need to run, especially when they're running alone cause there's no lfms in their lvl range. And i'm not able to do it, on lvl 1 i cannot give them even few k plat. I know it's only about spending dolar or two to become premium, but totally 1st timers wont do it after 10 min playing ddo. It's really something small, but can improve comfort for new players.

And if we speak about this - 1 auction for f2ps? When auction house is killed by as and nobody post on it? It's the way for new players to look for some items, even when they're not able to find by playing (like from p2p packs). Autologout after 10 min? It's less important, but do we need autlogout? Is there so many players online that we've to lower their number while they're eating something/going bio? My knowledge is based on wiki account comparisons, but chat restrictions for f2p? I'm not sure what restrictions we're talking about, but limited chat? Chat? One more thing that nobody on world got? Are chats so full or conversations that we need limits?

17. Contact with support. I can understant restrictions in in game support contact, someone have to be in work, someone have to help players, you have to pay him for it, but for example i was trying to contact support via www for a month. There was even no mail confirmation. Then i send ticket with different settings and i got reply from support. Now, is it reality or dream? Contact with support is bugged and support is not fixing it? What are you doing in informatics industry if you are not able/dont know how/too lazy to fix things like that?


To ddo player community. At the beginning i have to admit i'm not always patient, i hate not using brain folks (like asking is it ip when there's adventure active 10 min in lfm), but there're few things we have to work on (of course i have to work on them too).

1. Advertising. As i said before - i spend few days on mmo forum and i found few new players. It showed me that we dont need devs to make our game more popular. Ppl with skills can do our own trailers, ppl with erudition can say few words about ddo, everyone can post their work on forums/fb/pages. If devs are too stupid/too lazy we can use our own hands to find new players, to show them beauty of ddo, we just have to spend our own time not only on farming items in game.

2. LFMs. It's huge problem. It discourage both - new and old players. And it's our own fault. Usually i dont need anyone while running heroic quests, but i always set lfm, because i like running with you, folks (i've met a lot of awesome players on ghallanda, but on the other hand, few can hate me too lol). Month ago i got rogue in my zerg party, who died on already activated trap cause he was sure about his reflex. He told me thats why he's soloing and not playing with others. I've got no idea why he joined zerg party, but is it so huge problem to set own lfm, on own rules, if you dont like others style? Like zerg, no zerg, no 1st timers, all bonuses, quick run? You can find ppl loving your playing style and have some fun together. If you're running something for favor, is it so huge problem to let others know about it and hop in? Is it so huge problem to let others hit chest if they need something when you're farming low lvl items? If you can solo elite is it problem to let others enjoy free xp? Trust me, you can make someone happy, show them how friendly game can be, not just leave everyone behind and think about yourself. Nobody will keep game servers on for 10 soloers, we've to encourage each other to play if we want to play. Even if nobody will be interested in farming mucks bane, even if nobody will join - lfm panel will seem to be alive and it'll be something encourage\ing everyone to play.

3. Small things. Like opening quests. When you see someone looking for opener it's only few seconds to open quest for him. For 95% of quests is just accepting share (if you already made elite). I can understand when someone is looking for whole chain, but single quest? Cmon, it's moment to help and earn his gratitude. Friendly community is one of things keeping players in game. Bah, even if we speak about long chains - i'm sure someone op on 28 lvl can find 30 min to zerg through for someone who need favor/loot. I'm not telling you to do it everyday (in fact there's not many lfms like that last days, cause there's no many new ppl), but even once per month it shouldn't be a problem.

4. Basic courtesy. I can understand someone is not interested in talking while questing, but is it game full of 10 year old kids? You're playing with real people, not bots or pets. Saying hello/hi when you join/leave party is mark of propriety, it makes good atmosphere around game, even if you wont say anything else. For example i'm not picking up soulstones, guiding, saying what quest next, no any help for ppl too lazy to greet each other with one word.

Ok, i'm improvising, atm it's everything i'd like to say. Of course in 10 min i'll have 10 other ideas, but i think i'll pass posting on forum anymore, cause probably it'll change nothing. If we speak about "to devs" part it would be nice to hear someone read it (like: i read it and i'm dev) even if you're going to ignore everything i said.

Peace.

Holy wall of text man... but i do agree.

[patang01]

OPs thread could really be a Foundation of Discord. The ideas presented represent a Feast or Famine mentality that can lead one into a Maze of Madness. I think the Devs suffer a Trial by Fire when they are hired and then have to deal with all the spaghetti code left behind by previous programmers. But the programmers that make it through that Crucible come out stronger.

I think you have a Giant Hold of the main issues there

[Postumus]

Somebody pleeeaassseee summarize the OP for me.

[bartharok]

Somebody pleeeaassseee summarize the OP for me.

Everything is bad, and he knows how to fix it all, and its easy to do as well.'

Oh, and the game is doomed unless the things are fixed.

If you want more information, youll have to read it all.

[Enerdhil]

Of course we can also spend entire day on farming single quest alone and then feel like someone who won his life after finding 5d100 axe. Difference between person smart and not is that smart one can be wrong about details, but at least is able to notice problems and look for solution, and i'm pretty sure at least some of us can see few problems

Edit: Maybe it's my poor english fault, but it's also possible you got reading problems, Coyopa. Please, try to read it again, cause in your summarize (in fact in your reply too) you wrote few things totally opposite to the ones i wrote and/or things you probably misunderstand. I can understand that for someone who thinks "i'm using sarcasm, i must be cool and funny" reading is useless skill, but from time to time you can try to use both - eyes and brain at the same time.

[Coyopa]

Of course we can also spend entire day on farming single quest alone and then feel like someone who won his life after finding 5d100 axe. Difference between person smart and not is that smart one can be wrong about details, but at least is able to notice problems and look for solution, and i'm pretty sure at least some of us can see few problems

Edit: Maybe it's my poor english fault, but it's also possible you got reading problems, Coyopa. Please, try to read it again, cause in your summarize you wrote few things totally opposite to the ones i wrote.

Considering I've read it three times, I think my understanding of your post is as good as I can make it. Yes, that means I've read it start to finish three times. Hyperbole, such as "finding 5d100 axe", does not help your position. Such a weapon simply does not exist in the game and pretending it does in order to bolster your argument does not help you. Now, if you want to refute my response to your post, feel free. I would be interested to see what you have to say to my in-depth response (not to my summary). Personally, I don't care about the summary. If I feel it's distracting from discussion of your original post, then I will delete it. I don't have any problem doing that. However, again, if you are going to refute anything I've posted, then refute my in-depth response and not my summary.

[Enerdhil]

Quick example.


I heard something about reaper difficulty - it's terrible idea. How are you going to convince players to run it? +120% xp bonus for 1st reaper run, so after TR we'll have to run 10 quests to reach lvl 20? Joke.



Add a reaper mode (with some reason to run reaper other than just the challenge).

I'm pretty sure "add reaper mode" and "reapear is terrible idea" isn't exactly the same. But of course i can be wrong.

Edit: and as i said at the beginning of thread, i'm not interested in arguing. I've got nothing against conversation and exchanging ideas, but all you said is: "op thinks he's the only brain on the world". I belive it's not possible to be blind enough to think that everything in game is going in right direction.

Edit2:http://ddoracle.com/Traffic.html. Of course it's not something we can base on to count ppl playing ddo, but, when you look at it, you cannot tell me we're going to have bright future. If you want we can give up with this thread, and talk about it again in 2-3 years, we'll see is will the game be doomed or not (if nothing will change of course).

[Coyopa]

Quick example.






I'm pretty sure "add reaper mode" and "reapear is terrible idea" isn't exactly the same. But of course i can be wrong.

Edit: and as i said at the beginning of thread, i'm not interested in arguing. I've got nothing against conversation and exchanging ideas, but all you said is: "op thinks he's the only brain on the world". I belive it's not possible to be blind enough to think that everything in game is going in right direction.

I did not say "op thinks he's the only brain on the world" or anything to that effect. Also, I've never said nor even intimated that everything (or even a majority of things) in game is going in the right direction.

Yes, I did mis-quote you about reaper mode. Strange to me that you'd lump that in with "nerf everthing or make elite harder", though. I apologize for getting that wrong. However, I did ask you to please pick apart and respond to my in-depth reply and not my summary. Since you're distracted by the summary, I'm going to delete it. Now, can we get to the actual conversation part?

[Enerdhil]

You know, it's easy to say "This can be fixed easily" when you're not familiar with the code and, especially, when you're not a programmer. I don't know whether you're a programmer or not. I do it for a living. I don't think these things you (and others) think are so easily fixed are that easy to fix. As has been said other times, their code is pretty much a confirmed spaghetti mess. Even if it's not, the codebase for this game is not small. Some things get fixed seemingly randomly because the developer working on one thing found the code causing a problem for something else and fixed it while s/he was there working on their primary task. They've confirmed this happens in several posts over the years. If the code causing bugs was that easily found and fixed, we wouldn't have a known issues list that seems to be consuming more and more of the game in the way "The Nothing" consumed Fantasia
I wrote i can understand not fixing something what cannot be fixed easly (like mabar) and i'm not blaming devs for it. You didn't read my post well. I just said that when something CAN be fixed easly and it's not done, there must be something wrong. You won't tell me that adding notbreakable barrel to place where mobs usually stuck will need a horde of programmers and and least few months to do.


Crafting systems are a good way to extend the life of content. I think the Shroud has remained as popular as it is not just because of the usefulness of the gear, but also because flagging for the raid is not difficult and getting to the raid entrance is not a chore. Alchemical crafting died as fast as it did in part because of the time required to get to the raid entrance. It didn't help that the flagging quests award terrible experience. I think, too, that it was released just before MotU and people chose to get easier-to-acquire gear from the expansion rather than mess around with a crafting system. Thunder-forged is dying more from all the duplication of materials that went on than anything else. I personally haven't bothered with it because I'm not interested in grinding out gear that I can only use for a couple of levels.

Crafting systems are only good if there's no craft systems able to compete in same level range. As i said, nobody will run single raid over 20 times when he got better gear to craft in 2 lvls and nobody will farm any raid for ingredients, when he can skipp it and just farm already finished, op item in chest (i think you just said the same thing). We've got limited amount of players, they need limited amount of items. When they'll craft things they need, they'll just abandon system. When system is abandoned it's easier for someone to farm items instead of crating them. When you'll create new toon/when someone new will join game he'll have nobody to do those 20 runs with. If he's not able to solo, he just abandon it and system become even more dead than before. If we speak about t-forget i can be wrong, i never heard about duplication ingredients from that area, but it's possible i took a break from ddo when this "event" was on. If we speak about alchemical - i'm not entirely sure why they're so unpopular, but i belive you're wrong - try to set lfm with "we're ready at raid entrance" and see how many ppl will join. Running through whole wilderness, when someone already prepared it, elevator is on etc. etc wont take you longer than 5 min, trust me. If you're not going to, try to do it. Clear the path and run from wilderness entrance, to raid entrance with clock on. Trust me, it wont be amount of time high enough to make something not worth running. Maybe one of the reasons it that nobody belive others will join, what cause nobody joining and makes filling waste of time.

And if we speak about flagging - i like it. I miss old pikers fate flagging system. I would think about changing flag for sos and heroic abbot (cause current flag is causing nobody to run it, especially ppl farming TRs are not going to waste their precious time on farming gems/sigil pieces, how high part of server population they're you should know. if not try to set lfm for streak friendly sos or heroic abbot (if you're naive enough you can try streak friendly too))


First, Cannith crafting was pretty much an abortion from the moment it was released. It was clear it was going to be abandoned right out of the gate, all the pretty words from the developers notwithstanding. Second, you can't judge how many people are using the system by the number of people you see in the crafting hall in either House K or House C. I've got the full Cannith crafting hall on my airship and I know most people have it on theirs. So, if I want to craft, I'll do it on my ship where I don't have to put up with the lag-fest that is the crafting halls in Houses K and C.

See ppl in crafting hall is metaphor. Metaphor is something, that don't exactly means the same you can think it means. The truth is that not many ppl are crafting. Maybe it's only g-land specification, but how often you hear - i must hit crafting device to craft something? I need essences? WTB crafting materials? I never thought it's popular, but some time ago ppl were doing it from time to time and there was reason why they were doing it. And in fact how many experienced players are crafting items in c hall, when they got vip/all packs and ability to farm all new, cool items? We have to be honest, it's not op craft, something you will miss while questing. There's a lot of random **** found in chests you can easly replace everything you could craft. And small change can do it more popular. We're not talking about month of hard work. If "it was going to be abandoned right out of the gate", it's devs choice, but you must agree it can be easly, without a lot of work, improved.


This wasn't that great of a system. It was fine when level cap was 20 and this was all there was to do at that level. It's not entirely a waste of time, either. There are still items that are worth having and are useful even at high levels. Granted, many are only situationally useful. If they're going to implement an exchange system like they did for the Menechtarun scrolls, it can't be too steep a ratio. Ten is pretty high and favors people who have been in the game for a very long time. I think three is fine. If you make it too high a ratio, then while people might start running it again, it'll just make getting the seal or shard you want that much harder. This is because all people are going to do is start hoarding every seal and shard that drops for them so they can get 10 to trade in for the one they want. At least right now, if one drops and people don't need it, they'll put it up for roll. Also, I don't think that content is as dead you think it is. Rather, I think the people running it are either soloing it or running it with people they know, rather than putting up lfms. I know I like to run EH Partycrashers, Snitch, Tide Turns, and Bargain of Blood on my level 28 bard/rogue every day that I have the time to do so. I find the quests fun, they don't take that much time, and the experience awarded isn't that horrible (it's not great, but it's not Blown To Bits/Power Play bad either). However, I'm not putting up lfms for these quests. I'm not willing to wait on anybody and I'm not really interested in interrupting what I'm doing to accept a join request, then share the quest, and (about half the time) remind people where the quest is.

One more times you're not really reading what i wrote (or just not analyzing). There's no "useless junk, delete it". I wrote: there's few unique items (like eross), good ones (like sos). But there's also a lot of useful at some lvls, but not worth farming for months including chest ransack etc (and if we speak about eross/esos even the worth farming ones can be not worth time you'll need to finally find shard/seal). I'm not offering specific solution, just saying that small change in this system can convince players to spend some time on looking for items they were going to leave in the mists of history

"I'm not willing to wait on anybody and I'm not really interested in interrupting what I'm doing to accept a join request, then share the quest, and (about half the time) remind people where the quest is.". I wrote about it in "to community" part of my post. The problem is in adding "quick run, wont wait whole day" or "know where the quest is" in lfm and simply ignore players who will ask about it? The problem is in SINGLE click accept in chat window, it's going to be so terrible interrupt that you can wipe/fail? At least i must reward you with good word for not using op builds if accepting request on eh is causing so many problems while questing. I need no more than few seconds to share the quest when someone ask gently (and i'm also ignoring the ones starting conversation with share) but who know, maybe you have to look 10 min for quest in quest jorunal.


Now that they've started the class passes, they don't have any choice but to finish them. If they don't finish them, then the classes that don't get an update are going to become obsolete and unplayed. That'll sideline a lot of work and content all on its own. I don't know what you think a bard should be, but I don't have any problems with the class. Granted, I sing fewer songs than other people playing bards (but I am using Inspire Courage now, too). However, I had a Spellsinger/Virtuoso bard before the class pass and it had terrible dps. Part of the improvement to bard is the introduction of the single weapon fighting style. You are right that a balanced party isn't really needed. I'm not sure that requiring a balanced party would have the effect you think it would. I continue to play because, even on days I don't have much time, I can get online, run something, and make a little progress on my character. My week nights are like this. I only have 3 hours' free time after I get home from work Monday through Thursday. I tend to spend 1 hour of that time online on DDO. If I had to wait around for a group before I could run something, do you really think I would even bother logging in? If you do, you've chosen the wrong answer. So, forcing people to have a group to get anything done would just result in fewer people logging on. (Actually, I would log on, get my Daily Dice roll, and then log out.)


At some point i agree with you. They cannot leave it in progress, but i belive starting that process was the first thing they made wrong. Even spellsinger got his own charm, not every class have to be killmachine to be handy and if good dps is something you enjoy - you don't have to play low dps class (and i know a guy who still got semi spellsinger based on sonic spells alt. he's playing it from time to time and he's not going to convert him into swf). Doing one quick TR for past life is not a problem (or at least there was no problem when bard was weak cause there was a lot of lfms you could join), then you can TR again into something more interesting for you. You dont have to farm end game content with spellsinger bard to the end of the world. Yeah, leaving few class without pass when others are already made is wrong idea, but making all classes zerg&killmachines only? Is it the only way we're going to enjoy the game and find somebody useful only when he got a lot of dps?

"So, forcing people to have a group to get anything done would just result in fewer people logging on"

But all time fewer people logging in and letting them play easier and easier game is not really solving this problem until now. So in your opinion letting players solo ee defiler with op characters is good way to keep them here, right? When you'll read my post, you'll notice that somewhere i wrote about forcing to play in party for elite difficulty, and letting soloers enjoy lower ones. We've got three different difficulties, not 3 versions of normal difficulty. The thing soloers enjoy in soloing is chance to play alone and do everything they want or chance to feel so mighty cause they can do everything without any help using no more than 1 hit per mob and not loosing 10hp? If we're talking about 2nd option they've got some serious mental ilness.


This one is so wrong-headed. It used to require a lot more experience to get to 20 than it currently does. It was a chore. You banked levels and ran certain quests over and over. Even on my 3rd life characters now (who have greater tomes of learning, are using Voice of the Master, but are not using any experience potions), I run pretty much all the quests every level. There are a few I skip, but those are in the minority. I still bank levels on my characters (because I'm in the habit of doing that from before the changes to the experience curve) and even then it can be a chore to get back to 20. Newbies already have it plenty easy. Go take a first life character out and see how quickly you level and see how much content still hasn't been run and will be skipped unless you bank a level. If you think requiring more experience to level will get people playing in the wilderness, you're just wrong. Four years ago, I loved the wildernesses. Now? I would just run quests on elite again until I got enough experience to level - and that's what most people will do. Wildernesses were terrible experience four years ago when I loved spending lots of time in them (I capped Sands, Gianthold, and Vale slayers multiple times each on multiple characters each). They're even worse experience now. I'm pretty much down to getting all the explorers and whatever slayers I get while exploring and running quests in that zone. It's rare that I go over 200 slayers in any wilderness other than Reaver's Refuge, Gianthold, Vale, Shavarath, and Orchard (as far as heroic wildernesses go). Multi-TR's are already buying tomes of learning and xp potions. I'm not sure who you're kidding saying that that isn't already happening. How do you think people are getting a TR done in 2 days?!?


I'm not sure why exploring wilderness is 50% of your messange when i wrote ONE word about it. There's no place i said devs have to force ppl to run s/r/e, just mentioned it as one of options to get some extra xp (even now a lot of players are farming tholme/epic orchard).

There's a lot of f2p quests, right, but at low lvls. If you think there's a lot of them on high lvls, probably you forgot how is it to start the game from beginning, without vp, without packs. I'm not begging for f2p quests cause i dont need them, but in A.D. 2015 few f2p quests are not enough to convince new players. Even if they can reach 20 by farming, even if they can do anything - they'll just get bored. There's hundred other mmo games and it's simple economy - if we want to compete with other games we have to be able to fight for players with something more than 4 quests to cap 20 from lvl 16. More xp per for lifes above 3 lvl will force players to look for new places to look for xp, even if it'll mean farming 2 quests instead of one. If we speak about tomes and xp potions, i've got no idea how you didnt noticed, that more xp will require more potions, not the same amount, so there'll be a difference. Again you were not paying attention what are you reading - i didnt said ppl will finally buy them, i said ppl will have to buy more, or just simply run more quests.


I'm no longer a huge fan of the elite streak, either. However, you can pause it now, which is helpful. You could always ignore it, too. People don't ignore the streak because they want the most experience they can get in the shortest time. Even I take advantage of the elite streak because of the extra experience. If I get a newbie in the party with me, I'm perfectly happy to carry them and teach them. I'd rather have newbies running elite with me and getting a trial by fire of sorts because of the things they can learn quickly, rather than letting them run normal by themselves and learn the lessons slowly. Anything that encourages (but doesn't require) grouping when running quests is a good thing. I quite enjoyed that "buddy weekend" (I forget it's exact name). It certainly got me putting up more LFMs as a habit now when I feel I have the time to devote to a group.


How pausing streak can solve problem of ppl looking only for elite difficulty to faster lvl up their characters? (and exact name was buddy weekend, you can delete ""). If they cannot solo elite they wont run hard, just simply wait for party to do it and get highest possible amount of xp. Pausing streak is more like bonus for raid farmers, when they're going to run something 1st time without being able to find party for eh/ee. Streak is not bonus for newbies, but for experienced players with a lot of content unlocked, letting them farm xp faster when they got even too much packs (i'm pretty sure running everything once and few runs of von3/shadows crypt and similar quests will give you maybe 4-5m xp). I'd like to see more players questing, more opportunities to join something, not ppl jumping from 1-20 in one day. And as i said, the problem is not that i'm crying cause i got no content to run with someone, but in no theoretical chance to join other ppl while questing. And it's very, very not pleasant for new players, cause they want to run stuff with someone. How many korthos lfms you see last days? How often? Today i saw no more than 15-20 lfms at the same time and maybe 2-3 through few hrs running newbies stance korthos (and i must admit none of them got even above 3 players). We've got something around 400-450 quests and at the same time there's no ppl trying to find party even for 10% of them? Anyone here remember when there were 2-3 lfms full for the same quest/raid at the same time not right after releasing it? Don't tell me the game is not doomed, cause if you're playing longer than few months you must have noticed the difference. Every year there's less players. It's fact, not my own vision, feel free to check traffic device i posted before. Of course you can keep laughting at me, but it wont change anything - it's fact, something real. Maybe in 1 year, maybe in 5, maybe in 10, but it's maths - if trend wont be turned upside down that count one day will reach 0. And, while we still can do something, it's better to think about problem instead of bitting each other cause you agree/disagree, isn't it?


No, thanks. I only keep guild chests in the cargo hold now and that's only because I haven't been able to come up with the cash to get the permanent guild chest amenity. As soon as I can do that, my guild won't have any buffs in the cargo hold. As far as resistances, I don't think there are as many people taking advantage of this as you think. Knowledgeable veterans don't need the resistances because of their meta-knowledge. I've not heard a peep from my guild members complaining about the lack of those buffs. For a while, I did keep them on the ship. However, nobody really went down there to use them because it's a pain in the butt and it's not worth the time spent on the trip to the hold. However, I still don't want my ability to keep guild chests in the cargo hold.


Guild chest? Really? One more time you're not reading. I said cargo BUFFS, i'm not sure how you find chest as buff. And on the other hand you said atm you're not interested in wasting cash to buy permanent storage room, but you deny f2ps taking some not changing game bonuses? I really, really cannot understand how someone who is playing game for X years, probably got a lot of p2p content unlocked, can be such scrooge to be against deleting buffs, cause he dont wanna spend money/points to buy new ones and at the same time he's against adding some stuff for new players, who got totally NOTHING. If not so many ppl use cargo res, it shouldn't be a problem to delete at least them. And i propose you to run through few stances and use examine button on ppl. Or maybe it's the special thing about g-land population and no other servers are using them.


Completely /not signed on this one. If you've gotten to 20, then you're dedicated enough to the game that you can and should be spending some money on it. We don't need more free-to-play quests at high heroic and epic levels. As far as whether people will run Lords of Dust chain daily? Yes, yes they will. They already do. I'm actually trying to add this into my daily rotation on my 28 bard/rogue. Tokens don't drop in Beyond the Rift because that quest ends in Forgotten Realms and tokens belong to Eberron lore (according to the devs). It's clear they wanted to reduce the availability of Tokens of the Twelve. In fact, for a while, they talked about obsoleting them entirely, but they got a lot of pushback and didn't do that. This was, in part, due to the duplication bug that was exploited so thoroughly by so many people. If you really think people are reaching level 20 (and later epic levels) without buying adventure packs, you are wrong once again. (And the delirium quests are hated by most people.)


Same thing as above. Someone who is playing week or two have to spend money to buy something allowing him to play, but you playing x years dont wanna spend money to buy one thing that is only affecting your own playing comfort?

And the problem is not reaching 20, but having enough fun to think about reaching 20 instead of giving up. Even if they got enough patience to farm all time same quests, they're first timers. They can do character so bad, that they wont be able to run longer, high lvl quests on normal. You think many players will join them with normal lfm? Some of them wont be intersted in wasting 1st streak try for normal, others already made it and prefer to run other quests with streak bonus, cause it'll let them lvl up faster. I hope you at least understand reasons why we should keep f2ps in game and why nobody is creating game account and buying vip at the same time.

Atm tokens are still here and if they're not going to change it, there's no reason why they couldn't add some in new place. (I'm not surprised ppl hate deliriums, cause everything what they expect from quests is huge xp, short so xp/per min will be huge too and huge amount of op items.)


The challenges should give more experience and shouldn't penalize players so heavily based on their levels. Adding higher level versions of the gear would help, too.

At least here we think similiar (or i hope we do).


Why should we open quests on elite for someone that we aren't planning to run the quest with? Let them go in on elite, get their head handed to them on a platter, and then complain because the quest is too hard and they can't find a group? That sounds like a winning plan![/

1 - I wrote about it as about EXAMPLE of something really small we can do for others, not requiring your/our time/patience/work/money.

2. Becouse if they want to look for opener, waiting few hrs wont encourage them to play the game, even if you find looking for opener pointless. Maybe cause they got toon with high lvl (so they wont get xp) and they dont wanna do 3 20 min runs just to get elite done? Maybe cause they're running for favor? Maybe they just want to unlock something without wasting month on it? And last but not least - is it so big problem for you? If someone will look for opener are you going to judge his reasons? If he want to, let him, it's his choice. I guess you never set lfm looking for opener. Month ago i got few days free, i decided to try thelanis server, and (it's not hyperbole) i have to wait 3 days for opener for any of: necro 1, 2, 3, 4, threnal, sorrowdusk quests (i was missing 35tp for warlock, buying 500 from store wasnt great option). Of course it would be faster to run it n/h/e but i decided to see how long it'll take me to find someone friendly to open it. Don't you see that there's some kind of problem with community? It's not about getting easy favor, it's about community behaviour.

[Ellihor]

OPs thread could really be a Foundation of Discord. The ideas presented represent a Feast or Famine mentality that can lead one into a Maze of Madness. I think the Devs suffer a Trial by Fire when they are hired and then have to deal with all the spaghetti code left behind by previous programmers. But the programmers that make it through that Crucible come out stronger.

Ok this thread was worth reading now

[osa87]

Hello everyone. For a long time i was just spectating how game is dying (is it my 1st post after 4 years of playing only with current account? lol). Every year there's less and less players, sooner or later there'll be none. Last days my guild seems to be semi dead, so i spend time on looking for new players. I'm not interested in starting next forum battle, just want to share few ideas i came up with. You can agree, disagree, i don't care, just want to highlight a problem. Usually i'm not reading forum, maybe i'll just repeat after someone. English isn't my mother tongue, so forgive me grammar mistakes etc, i hope my messange will be at least understandable. Numbers are only to point diffrent aspects of my post, they're not an order.

To devs. At first you must finally understand one thing. I know it can be ununderstandable for you, but f2p newbies are your future. I know it's your job, not charity organisation, but way straight ahead to money is not always the best way to money. Newbies always can find game amazing and decide to pay for vip. F2Ps always can become vip to reward you for your work. I know a lot of players with all content unlocked, but still paying vip just to enjoy the game, just to help you keep the game on. And, on the other hand, even current vips wont pay subscription for dead game, where they got noone to play with. You can think only about ppl paying you (and i got nothing against, as i said it's not charity), but they wont pay you forever, they need other ppl to quest with, to run things they wanna do. F2Ps/newbies are the easiest way to fill servers. It will please vips, they'll be able to finally enjoy their unlimited quest access, and maybe some f2ps will choose to become vip just to enjoy things they see a huge amount of players is running. Or (it's popular strategy) when they'll see sale for something cool, they can spend few $s to add turbine points. But nobody will pay for game with 10 players online, and nobody will even play game like that. 5 LFMs wont encourage anyone.

1. We all enjoy new content, but it's really not the only thing we expect from game. Less new stuff, more fixing bugs, lags etc., they're the reason why people are leaving. We don't have a lot of new players, so you must work harder on keeping here the old ones. Players are crying for it, not for more packs, more items, but for chance for normal game, without problems. Is few years not enough to fix few bugs? I can understand not everything can be fixed easly and sometimes it'll take incredible amount of time wasted on it (i love old mabar, but i can forgive you not spending few months on just fixing it and doing other things instead), but there's a lot of other problems you can fix easly and you just ignoring it. Many times your community felt abandoned, don't let us think the only thing you're thinking about is how to make some money by releasing new p2p content. I understand you have to make money to not loose your employment, but because of that paradoxically you're making less money cause there's less and less players.

2. "These forums are open for posting and meeting other players! Note: Forums outside of this category may require Premium or VIP account status to access."

Some rights on forum only for p2p/premium players. Really? Really, really, really? Is it still middle ages or already XXI century? Do you think your game is so awesome, the only on the world that people will pay just to share their ideas on forum? It's ridiculous. There's over thousand other games, new players wont ask you for help, wont pay just to ask few questions about game on forum. Server forums are almost dead - if someone want to look for raid party, communicate with server mates, they got no chance to do it if they're not vips/premium. It's one more reason why people are leaving. Is having forum something so exceptional that we have to pay to use it? Are you afraid about forum spammers? Trust me, they're not going to waste their time on spamming unknown mmo forum.

3. Advertising. DDO is awesome, exceptional game. thats why we're playing. Let world know about it. If you got no cash for banners there's a lot of other ways to tell the others about great work you made by creating this game. I wrote few words on random forum for mmo players, described few quests and in few days i found few new players. I dont know - they'll stay in game or abandon, but at least they're here, they're testing it! We need new players, cause when there's no new ones every time someone leave the game it's approaching shut down of all servers. Even with bugs, lags, not balanced classes we've got a lot of unique things in ddo we can be proud about, we can convince new players to come here. But we have to do it, not simply wait for them with hope they'll find us alone.

4. No more crafting system based on Q/raid or only one more for end game/expected highest lvl ever. It's really cool to have new stuff and everyone will **** in pants after new +50 greataxe, but do we really need it? Every time you release anything part of game is dying. Alchemicals are dead, it's hard to find party even for one lob/ma run for favor. GS are semi dead, just because they're still useful for TRing. Thunder-forged are dying, it's possible, but not easy to find party for t-holme raids. We dont need dead craft every 2 character levels.

5. Crafting hall upgrade. Universal crafting today is not really cool, especially for epics. It's not bad system, can be handy for all classes/builds, but it's outdated. It still can be cool, we can see a lot of players (especially new ones, without access to all packs with op items) crafing in house K crafting hall, but it have to be usefull! Maybe not op, but at least able to compete with random stuff we find in chests.

6. Old epic system (item+shard+seal+scroll). I find it really great, but now it's only waste of time. It was amazing to farm them, spend our time on working on them. It gives a lot of involvement and let us simply be proud of our items more than farming 1 quest for op items beating old epics in every way (even in drop chance). I'm not asking about improving them. Improve seal/shard drop, add random to 20th quest reward, let us exchange them for even 10 others. Anything, just make doing old epic gear easier (but not too easy) and ppl will start running carnival/sentinels/fens again, maybe not farming, but at least single run from time to time. If they'll be easier to create they still can be useful on low epic lvls/while ERing and old content will have new life, especially for players without all packs. (I think i would be nice to see new pack based on old system, but i guess it will be too much for you, dear devs)

7. No more op items. Like in 6, they make half of quests not worth running. Even worse - it lets everyone solo everything, one more reason why lfms are dead. Leaving op items in chests is really not the only reason why ppl can buy and enjoy new content/quests.

8. No more class passes. It's really the thing you dont know how to do. Doing one class op doesnt mean it's balancing anything. Game got less sense, some class are weaker, other stronger, but it's fun! Not all classes have to deal high dmg to let us enjoy playing them. Only soloers/zergers need dps on every class. It's about options, different styles, not about beging able to kill everything. For example bard now is not really bard, just one more... i don't know... fighter with wiz levels? Barbarian with healing? Really? Thats next reason why lfms are dead, balanced party is no longer needed.

9. Ultrazergers will hate me, but... It's time to increase xp per level! Lower it for life 1-3, increase for further ones so newbies got easier beginning and ppl with a lot of packs will have to run them. You can say there's elite streak and it's easier to lvl up, but holy ****, you know newbies running elites? They even cannot open it with streak, and i'm sure they wont be able to run it. Of course they can run elite, but wait a second, there's nobody to run with. For example i got all packs and g tome of learning on my main toon. It's enough for me to reach 20 by running everything once and still have to abandon few packs on way to 20 without any xp potion on. I know a lot of ppl TRing from 1-20 in 2 days with potion on skipping 75% of game packs. More xp per level will make TR farmers angry, but ppl will run less popular packs, more difficulties (like hard, normal for 1st time bonus), maybe even some s/r/e in wilderness. Newbies will enjoy it, really. Think about your first f2p accounts when you farmed almost everything for xp. New players got nobody to run with if it's not elite. There'll be a lot of things to run even for ppl not able only to zerg through elites (to be honest i'm zerging through elites, but i know others got not enough packs to do it and can enjoy other difficulties too). MultiTRs will also buy tomes of learning, xp potions, it's more $s for you, devs!

10. Nerf streak. It's cool thing, but it force ppl to run only elites. Reasons why you should do it are above. In fact you can leave streak in current look for 1st life toons, but i guess it'll be not easy to do it from technical side of doing it, so i can understand nerfing it for everyone. On the other hand you can add bonus for ppl in party (there was buddy weekend). Maybe lesser bonus (like, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15), but make it permanent.

11. Nerf everything or... improve elite difficulty. Add hp, saves, bonuses, let elite be elite if you cannot nerf classes, prr etc. Last days i spend on running with total newbies (i must admit some of them fall in love in game, one bought vip after 1 day playing! we really have awesome game, we don't have to watch lowering population). It was surprising for me, but they enjoy explorating game on normal. It's difference between noobs and newbies - noobs want to feel powerful when they're not. We've got other difficulties, not only elite. I still remember days, when nobody believed it's possible to run in the flesh or acute delirium at level. Now ppl can even solo it with streak. It'll not only give us challange, but bring lfms alive cause ppl will HAVE TO look for party to finish elite run. Soloers can run other difficulties, elite have to be tough for us. Let it be party difficulty, force ppl to look for party. Delete stupid quest scalling, leave it at level of full party. I heard something about reaper difficulty - it's terrible idea. How are you going to convince players to run it? +120% xp bonus for 1st reaper run, so after TR we'll have to run 10 quests to reach lvl 20? Joke.

12. Merge few servers. Do we need 10 dead servers like wayfinder instead of 3 with high population? When someone new join the game and he see empty servers he leaves. Nobody will play ddo if there'll be empty servers only. Let new players see that game is alive, let old ones dont look whole day for party for quests or soon there'll be nobody left. We really, really need less number of higher populated servers, it'll satisfy everyone. If population will grow you always can bring new server with free transer option to new one, but atm population is lower and lower.

13. Delete cargo buffs. New ones are awesome, maybe a little op if we speak about previous ones, but letting us use both at the same time it's joke. With cargo buffs we can run korthos with 41 resistances (30 cargo res, 5 new res, 6 ranger pl). It makes everyone almost immune for all not cc/untyped/force spells in game. Casters are not affecting us. It makes game much easier and making resistance spell (one of the more important ones) totally useless. It'll affect not only game difficulty, but also class balance (op barbarian will be a little bit less cool without res, when casters will be able to buff themselfs).

14. Now, this is important, i'm not asking about 100 new quests, even 4 (like random pack) will be enough. When i was starting max lvl was 20 and last f2p quest was lvl 12 lordsmach chain and delirium&acid wit (i'm not counting in the demons den cause nobody were running it). Now we've got cool lvl 16 f2p pack placed in harbor, but it's not enough. We need something on lvl 17-20 with epic version and epic tokens, let new player reach lvl 20 and let them enjoy some epic levels. It's not easy to reach lvl 20 if they got 3 lvl 12 quests, 4 lvl 15 and 4 lvl 16. Do you think someone will run every day lords of dust for a month? They'll get bored and give up with game. And if they'll reach lvl 20, do you think they'll farm tokens in 3 quests (they're not dropping in beyond the rift if i remember well, but i can be wrong)? 60 lod en runs to TR? Or maybe we should let them enjoy epic levels and reach 28 (6 600 000xp) by farming all time 4 quests? We really need new f2p quests near lvl 20 with epic version and tokens they can exchange for heroic hearts of the wood. My subjective opinion - 3Q + raid (lvl 17 can be good idea, so streak will not affect players with ed on - it'll make streak friendly run harder) based on delirium style (delirium, acute, terminal) can be something really amazing. Deliriums are one of my favourite quests, they're interesting, they're tough, they're crazy and creative. It's really nice way to show newbies that we've got really various content, not only slaying kobolds.

15. Challenges. I hate them, but i find them interesting part of the game, now totally abandoned by players. I see few options:
- more free tokens per day or even transfer it to f2p content. It can be one more place to look for xp for newbies/f2ps
- balance/improve xp for runs after 1st one. It's odd that 1st run with all stars can give gives huge amount of xp and next ones are giving few k even on max CR. Is there 1st time bonus for every cr, or nice xp is only once per life? I've got no idea how it works, but better xp will bring more ppl to house c
- lower objectives for challanges with extractors. it's almost impossible to hit 6* in all of them
- you can add few more items gained from challanges rewards (but not op). for me it's not really important, but it can be one more reason why ppl can run them (both - looking for xp and gear)

16. Plat. Plat/as balance is broken and i don't think you can fix it without deleting whole as system and lot of other things, what, of course will never happen. But if plat is no longer usefull, you can at least improve plat cap and plat max prizes on ah, so few more items will appear on ah. And the most important thing - improve plat cap for f2ps. I found few new players and i'd like to show them friendly face, give them plat to buy pots, hirelings, stuff they'll need to run, especially when they're running alone cause there's no lfms in their lvl range. And i'm not able to do it, on lvl 1 i cannot give them even few k plat. I know it's only about spending dolar or two to become premium, but totally 1st timers wont do it after 10 min playing ddo. It's really something small, but can improve comfort for new players.

And if we speak about this - 1 auction for f2ps? When auction house is killed by as and nobody post on it? It's the way for new players to look for some items, even when they're not able to find by playing (like from p2p packs). Autologout after 10 min? It's less important, but do we need autlogout? Is there so many players online that we've to lower their number while they're eating something/going bio? My knowledge is based on wiki account comparisons, but chat restrictions for f2p? I'm not sure what restrictions we're talking about, but limited chat? Chat? One more thing that nobody on world got? Are chats so full or conversations that we need limits?

17. Contact with support. I can understant restrictions in in game support contact, someone have to be in work, someone have to help players, you have to pay him for it, but for example i was trying to contact support via www for a month. There was even no mail confirmation. Then i send ticket with different settings and i got reply from support. Now, is it reality or dream? Contact with support is bugged and support is not fixing it? What are you doing in informatics industry if you are not able/dont know how/too lazy to fix things like that?


To ddo player community. At the beginning i have to admit i'm not always patient, i hate not using brain folks (like asking is it ip when there's adventure active 10 min in lfm), but there're few things we have to work on (of course i have to work on them too).

1. Advertising. As i said before - i spend few days on mmo forum and i found few new players. It showed me that we dont need devs to make our game more popular. Ppl with skills can do our own trailers, ppl with erudition can say few words about ddo, everyone can post their work on forums/fb/pages. If devs are too stupid/too lazy we can use our own hands to find new players, to show them beauty of ddo, we just have to spend our own time not only on farming items in game.

2. LFMs. It's huge problem. It discourage both - new and old players. And it's our own fault. Usually i dont need anyone while running heroic quests, but i always set lfm, because i like running with you, folks (i've met a lot of awesome players on ghallanda, but on the other hand, few can hate me too lol). Month ago i got rogue in my zerg party, who died on already activated trap cause he was sure about his reflex. He told me thats why he's soloing and not playing with others. I've got no idea why he joined zerg party, but is it so huge problem to set own lfm, on own rules, if you dont like others style? Like zerg, no zerg, no 1st timers, all bonuses, quick run? You can find ppl loving your playing style and have some fun together. If you're running something for favor, is it so huge problem to let others know about it and hop in? Is it so huge problem to let others hit chest if they need something when you're farming low lvl items? If you can solo elite is it problem to let others enjoy free xp? Trust me, you can make someone happy, show them how friendly game can be, not just leave everyone behind and think about yourself. Nobody will keep game servers on for 10 soloers, we've to encourage each other to play if we want to play. Even if nobody will be interested in farming mucks bane, even if nobody will join - lfm panel will seem to be alive and it'll be something encourage\ing everyone to play.

3. Small things. Like opening quests. When you see someone looking for opener it's only few seconds to open quest for him. For 95% of quests is just accepting share (if you already made elite). I can understand when someone is looking for whole chain, but single quest? Cmon, it's moment to help and earn his gratitude. Friendly community is one of things keeping players in game. Bah, even if we speak about long chains - i'm sure someone op on 28 lvl can find 30 min to zerg through for someone who need favor/loot. I'm not telling you to do it everyday (in fact there's not many lfms like that last days, cause there's no many new ppl), but even once per month it shouldn't be a problem.

4. Basic courtesy. I can understand someone is not interested in talking while questing, but is it game full of 10 year old kids? You're playing with real people, not bots or pets. Saying hello/hi when you join/leave party is mark of propriety, it makes good atmosphere around game, even if you wont say anything else. For example i'm not picking up soulstones, guiding, saying what quest next, no any help for ppl too lazy to greet each other with one word.

Ok, i'm improvising, atm it's everything i'd like to say. Of course in 10 min i'll have 10 other ideas, but i think i'll pass posting on forum anymore, cause probably it'll change nothing. If we speak about "to devs" part it would be nice to hear someone read it (like: i read it and i'm dev) even if you're going to ignore everything i said.

Peace.

I must agree with everything Enerdhil wrote, game on heroic is not a challenge anymore, i remember day i started playing with 2 friends, we run n/h/e, and on elite we wiped on skeleton archmage in sacrifices... shortly after, when we got to lvl 5 or 6, my friends stopped playing, they were bored running everything 3 times. I've stayed and done every quest on normal solo (just to get to know the quest and don't have to be held by hand all the time), then tried to find lfm for elite and it was pain in my behind.I got to lvl20 in 2-3months, after that i was afraid to do TR and have to run all quests again even more times to reach lvl20 again... At lvl cap(20) with guildie i tried to run shroud elite for favor, filling full party took 2h, we needed 2 good healers, and it was really hard to finish. A week ago, with the same frient we did streak friendly shroud with only 14lvlfvs/3lvl pally as a healer... i wasn't very hard, only trouble we had was harry in part 4 after jumping out of the blades, vanished for 3-5min everytime...(the same thing happens in eh UBT, malicia stays inactive for 5mins. even when mobs dont spawn)
Next things are bug/glitches/lags. ladder bug... its still there, and i found it around up10... and now, 4 years later close to up30 we stil have it... maybe its hard to remove, i dont know, i'm not into programming... but i think 4 years is a lot time to remove bug... its annoying like many other things, stuck points, falling under texture, mobs in walls and many many more since 2011.
I really love the game but sadly its going the wrong way...
I'm not a vip but i spend a lot of money on ddo and want to enjoy the game like i used to.

[bartharok]

I must agree with everything Enerdhil wrote, game on heroic is not a challenge anymore, i remember day i started playing with 2 friends, we run n/h/e, and on elite we wiped on skeleton archmage in sacrifices... shortly after, when we got to lvl 5 or 6, my friends stopped playing, they were bored running everything 3 times. I've stayed and done every quest on normal solo (just to get to know the quest and don't have to be held by hand all the time), then tried to find lfm for elite and it was pain in my behind.I got to lvl20 in 2-3months, after that i was afraid to do TR and have to run all quests again even more times to reach lvl20 again... At lvl cap(20) with guildie i tried to run shroud elite for favor, filling full party took 2h, we needed 2 good healers, and it was really hard to finish. A week ago, with the same frient we did streak friendly shroud with only 14lvlfvs/3lvl pally as a healer... i wasn't very hard, only trouble we had was harry in part 4 after jumping out of the blades, vanished for 3-5min everytime...(the same thing happens in eh UBT, malicia stays inactive for 5mins. even when mobs dont spawn)
Next things are bug/glitches/lags. ladder bug... its still there, and i found it around up10... and now, 4 years later close to up30 we stil have it... maybe its hard to remove, i dont know, i'm not into programming... but i think 4 years is a lot time to remove bug... its annoying like many other things, stuck points, falling under texture, mobs in walls and many many more since 2011.
I really love the game but sadly its going the wrong way...
I'm not a vip but i spend a lot of money on ddo and want to enjoy the game like i used to.

The ladder bug is hard to remove because its 1 bug/ladder, or so ive heard said.

[Darkmits]

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this post (mine, not the OP) are personal and subjective and may include traces of elitism, sarcasm and specialsnowflake-ness:

1) Definitely agree. We need bugfixes, not workarounds.
2) Can't agree here. Quite a few games, especially ones with subscription, allow only those who pay to post on the forums. It helps them prevent trollposts.
3) Agree. But they need to back up their advertising with a solid product. Those who stay with DDO after a long time do so by coping with its issues.
4) Disagree. New stuff need to be better than existing ones, otherwise there is no incentive to run the content more than once. The point is finding that sweet spot where it feels like an upgrade that doesn't invalidate content released before it significantly.
5) As a fellow crafter, I wholeheartidly agree. Crafting Hall crafting in DDO is in a horrible shape. It is possibly the 2nd longest grind in the game after triple completionist, and even with Artificer favour for Master Craftsmanship, the items can never be than what you'd get randomly from a mid-quest chest at the same level. The only time it is useful is when you change your entire equipment due to gaining a level and you are missing one or two stats, and its usefulness at that point as well is debatable.
6) I'm indifferent to this
7) See #4
8) Disagree. Class passes need to happen. It's just that the focus on them seems to be exclusively on personal dps/hps instead of group power potential (buffs, debuffs, utility)
9) Both agree and disagree. First, I believe BB needs to go. Even though it has been mathematically proven to be worse exp/min trying to solo on Elite to keep BB over doing Hard+Normal runs, it's still a mechanic that only helps to fragment the playerbase. You're 1 level above the quest on Elite? No, you don't join. There's a group running the quest on Hard? No, I'm not going to break my BB for them. I admit I have yet to utilise the dude that allows me to pause it. Regarding exp requirements, those are fine. A brand new player can reach level 20 by running every F2P quest just once on Normal, once on Hard, once on Elite after doing the 100 favor per server run and purchasing Gianthold.
10) See #9
11) Or maybe they can implement Reaper to be the next after Elite in this sense: Requires completion of Elite to unlock. Quest is considered 3 levels above Normal. 4th-life and above characters can enter immediately, as well as VIP. And make 4th life and above be 38-point builds. And then make it so that it is designed for a group of 6 capable players with no dungeon scaling.
12) There are like 7 servers only. Merging would cause issues with conflicting names and possibly exacerbate latency issues and stability.
13) Disagree. Ship buffs need to exist, but they need to not interfere with absolutely anything else. The major offender are of course the element resistances. Instead, I recommend they should be +5 Guild bonus, stacking with player buff but not making a character without the spell or scrolls of it more op.
14) A lot of content can be purchased without spending a single cent. First, the 100-favor run is enough to unlock Gianthold (with a bit of extra favor run on your main character, but definitely before you hit lvl12). Then you just keep collecting Turbine Points through more characters or TRing, and you can buy enough content to get to 28 without needing to rerun everything multiple times. Also, Wilderness helps. If a player stops at 100 kills and doesn't go for rares, it's their fault.
15) Indifferent to me
16) Agree. Platinum needs to be made relevant again. Platinum sinks would make players destroy crates again, collect everything in chests and focus on Haggle a bit more. As it is now, my only platinum expenses are repairs, some scrolls and what I donate once in a blue moon for guild buffs.

[tarkin1980]

That you need to pay to access the forums is just 100% ridiculous. When I'm looking into trying out a new game, I usually go to the forums and try to get a feel for the game first. If I find that I can't even read the forums without paying, I will probably be put off and less likely to download the game. I'm probably not the only one. Also, new players are the ones who need the forums the most. They need info to learn how to play the game. This game is pretty complex and having to find everything out for yourself is going to frustrate a lot of people and scare them away.

To make old players return, I think you need to release more low level content, and of course make a good part of it f2p. Most players aren't willing to return to the game and grind for hundreds of hours to get to level 20+ to try the new stuff. A new level 5-8ish storyline that is f2p would probably make more people return than a new level 28 one. And some of them might actually stay.

[osa87]

The ladder bug is hard to remove because its 1 bug/ladder, or so ive heard said.

As i said, it can be hard, i don't know, but for over 4 years, turbine added a lot of quests with ladders and ladder bugs on them...moreover not even single ladder with ladderbug was fixed, rly? for 4 years not even one? and added new ones bugged? i think there is something wrong with this logic, very wrong... and its not the only bug there...

LFM list - you need to opem WHO to see lfm... if someone logout having LFM up, its stays dead on the list until he log on again... i know that changing old code can be difficult, but it has to be done, bugs can't sit in game for few years, if i could see 1 old bug fixed weekly (even 1 ladder at a time) or at this point even monthly i would be happy.
There are only few lfms up and getting party for most of the content is really hard if not imposible, i'm working most of the week and i cant afford waiting 2h or more for group to fill. I'm playing mostly with guildies, if not that i would be probably soloing most of the time, not becouse i don't want to group, only becouse i can't wait so long for someone willing to run dungeon with me and even when i'm soloing i'm putting lfm up so someone who need quest i'm running(for completion/favor/xp) can hop in and maybe help me a little so the run will be smoother.
When i'm joining lfm i say hello, when i leave i say goodbye, its really not that hard and it makes me remember i'm playing with a living person. Lately we had lfm for some chain on he streak friendly in eveningstar, 5/6, last person joined, no hello, not a word, couple minutes later (after visiting few houses j,p,k) he's asking where the quest is... we were fighting mobs so wi couldn't respond fast, he started to yell at us that he only need the quest name so he can wiki it... lfm was for chain and set on quest we were doing atm. so he joined not reading what quest he is joining, and was mad on us for not telling him where the quest is... we were ***... people need to be more polite, they don't have to be chatty and all, simple hi/bb is enough.

I can't write everything bad that is happening becouse it would be a holy wall of text like Enerdhil wrote.

it's my opinion, fully subjective, but also many friends of mine think the same way.

[bartharok]

As i said, it can be hard, i don't know, but for over 4 years, turbine added a lot of quests with ladders and ladder bugs on them...moreover not even single ladder with ladderbug was fixed, rly? for 4 years not even one? and added new ones bugged? i think there is something wrong with this logic, very wrong... and its not the only bug there...

LFM list - you need to opem WHO to see lfm... if someone logout having LFM up, its stays dead on the list until he log on again... i know that changing old code can be difficult, but it has to be done, bugs can't sit in game for few years, if i could see 1 old bug fixed weekly (even 1 ladder at a time) or at this point even monthly i would be happy.
There are only few lfms up and getting party for most of the content is really hard if not imposible, i'm working most of the week and i cant afford waiting 2h or more for group to fill. I'm playing mostly with guildies, if not that i would be probably soloing most of the time, not becouse i don't want to group, only becouse i can't wait so long for someone willing to run dungeon with me and even when i'm soloing i'm putting lfm up so someone who need quest i'm running(for completion/favor/xp) can hop in and maybe help me a little so the run will be smoother.
When i'm joining lfm i say hello, when i leave i say goodbye, its really not that hard and it makes me remember i'm playing with a living person. Lately we had lfm for some chain on he streak friendly in eveningstar, 5/6, last person joined, no hello, not a word, couple minutes later (after visiting few houses j,p,k) he's asking where the quest is... we were fighting mobs so wi couldn't respond fast, he started to yell at us that he only need the quest name so he can wiki it... lfm was for chain and set on quest we were doing atm. so he joined not reading what quest he is joining, and was mad on us for not telling him where the quest is... we were ***... people need to be more polite, they don't have to be chatty and all, simple hi/bb is enough.

I can't write everything bad that is happening becouse it would be a holy wall of text like Enerdhil wrote.

it's my opinion, fully subjective, but also many friends of mine think the same way.

A lot of ladders work a lot better than they used to. So claiming that nothing has been done just isnt true. They havent managed to eradicate the faulty ladders, no, but that doesnt mean nothing has happened.

[Kylstrem]

A lot of ladders work a lot better than they used to. So claiming that nothing has been done just isnt true. They havent managed to eradicate the faulty ladders, no, but that doesnt mean nothing has happened.

Just so it is clear for all, there are essentially two ladder bugs.

One of them that has been mostly eradicated (not sure if there are any left), is that you would get stuck halfway up. Devs said this was the result of them using "multiple ladders stacked on top of each other" to make really tall ladders. I can't think of any ladder that still has this bug.

The other bug is where you try to jump on one or you start trying to climb and you get the rubberband effect where you go up slightly and then pop back down. That one is only a minor annoyance... just hop and try again... never had it where getting back on it would not solve the problem.

[Eth]

The other bug is where you try to jump on one or you start trying to climb and you get the rubberband effect where you go up slightly and then pop back down. That one is only a minor annoyance... just hop and try again... never had it where getting back on it would not solve the problem.

Well, the ladder in VoN2 after the beholder at the shrine is a problem ;)

Other than that I don't understand either why people make such a deal out of this.

[Enerdhil]

I'd like to add one more thing. I'm patient, as long as game allows me to have to some fun while playing i can survive all bugs/lags/shutting down servers in 10 min without warning. I'm playing ddo 6 years and i never before wrote on forum: devs have to change something, fix something, make something in different way. No single word, bad or good, about work they've made. From march to august i was not able to load my main toon, i give up with game without sending ticket to support, but from time to time i was making sure one of updates wont fix my problem (finally hotfix and character data restoration after disappearing stat tomes fixed my problem somehow).

For me the biggest problem is game population. On G-land sometimes there's no 5 players in lvl range 1-3. Sometimes there's noone in korthos. Anyone here remeber when there was always at least few ppl in korthos? When i see someone unknown now usually it's someones well known new toon. I'll skip talking again about things i think can change this trend (and everyone can have different opinion about problems and soultions i described). As i said before, i'm in touch with few 100% new ddo players. Now:

4/6 got some serious problems with game, not allowing them even to run single quest:
- game crash every few min (he found solution alone, something with happy cloud download option affecting and closing game)
- not being able to log in right after downloading game ( i think it was error 201, unistalling and downloading other version/from other source solved it)
- i've got no contact with other 2, probably they give up. All what i'm sure about is that they were not able to see the grotto.

2/6 got serious problems with paying for game:
- not being able to finish tp points transaction via steam (when players playing via steam got no other payment methods (thats what he told me, i've never tryied playing ddo via steam). I found same issue reports from 2012 and few warnings from community that problem is back from the beginning of 2015)
- stuck at store while buying points with debit card, after 24h no confirmation, no points, ticket to support soon if points will not appear in next 24h)

I can understand there's a lot advanced problems, things affecting each other with no possibility to find and fix problem easly. And i must admit my knowledge is a little bit rusty, i'm not playing any other mmo after i found ddo, so i can be wrong, but i've never heard about so many issues in first minutes after downloading or even before finishing download. But turbine seems to work on logging problems only when they're affecting entire server (what is happenning regularly) or someone will look for supports help. I think more than half players will just give up with game they've never played before instead of spending long hours on forum (forum they're not able to post on) and reinstalling game few times just to first time see character creation menu and enjoy a lot of other problems, bugs, lags, crashes, cause i'm sure they'll meet at least few of them after playing month or two. Even if it'll take long time to investigate, even if finally devs will see it unsolvable - it's something that have to be done and something that require clear solutions to walk around, not requiring reading forum for a few hrs and trying 10 different ways to fix single issue.

[kismetbuy]

DDO2 add kenku and gnome race. Ravenloft world, plus 9 plains of hell chain and fight Asmodeus in a raid would be cool. Just typing.

[Hafeal]

Everything is bad, and he knows how to fix it all, and its easy to do as well.'

Oh, and the game is doomed unless the things are fixed.

If you want more information, youll have to read it all.

OMG - you saved at least 10 minutes of my life and a sense of 'having to typoe responsive post' that would have wasted more time. I owe you. +1 for you.



I must agree with everything Enerdhil wrote, game on heroic is not a challenge anymore, i remember day i started playing with 2 friends, we run n/h/e, and on elite we wiped on skeleton archmage in sacrifices... shortly after, when we got to lvl 5 or 6, my friends stopped playing, they were bored running everything 3 times. I've stayed and done every quest on normal solo (just to get to know the quest and don't have to be held by hand all the time), then tried to find lfm for elite and it was pain in my behind.I got to lvl20 in 2-3months, after that i was afraid to do TR and have to run all quests again even more times to reach lvl20 again... At lvl cap(20) with guildie i tried to run shroud elite for favor, filling full party took 2h, we needed 2 good healers, and it was really hard to finish. A

OK, it's not that the game is not a challenge - it is that you are "bored"?

If you are having trouble filling lfms on Heroic Elite, I can only suggest 1) You are doing something wrong in your post OR 2) You have a reputation on your regular server and people do not want to join. For Heroic, an Elite quest post on the lfm panel is more likely to get people to join as opposed to Normal or Hard. Bravery Bonus, zerger types zipping through their life happily join in Elite runs. And they will make every quest, even tough ones, look easy. HEY, that is what twink gear, ship buffs, and past life power does, It makes the game easier.

I guess, your post says 'challenge' but it really indicate 'boredom' is the problem. Maybe some of that is your own behavior? For example, you don't 'need' to run everything 3 times. Especially on a first life character. Maybe that was the problem? Regulating yourself starting out to repeating the same stuff 3 times? Try x1 and move to the next quest. There is SO MUCH xp in this game between quests and exploreres, you don't need to run something x3. If you are seeking to try something on Elite, post your lfm asking for an ELite opener.

[Livmo]

snip

By the title I thought this would be about the quest or video game addiction. I read it all and some interesting points that I agree with and some that I don't agree with.

[osa87]

OMG - you saved at least 10 minutes of my life and a sense of 'having to typoe responsive post' that would have wasted more time. I owe you. +1 for you.




OK, it's not that the game is not a challenge - it is that you are "bored"?

If you are having trouble filling lfms on Heroic Elite, I can only suggest 1) You are doing something wrong in your post OR 2) You have a reputation on your regular server and people do not want to join. For Heroic, adn Elite quest post on the lfm panel is more likely to get people to join as opposed to Normla or Hard. Bravery Bonus, zerger types zipping through their life happily join in Elite runs. And they will make every quest, even tough ones, look easy. HEY, that is what twink gear, ship buffs, and past life power does, It makes the game easier.

I guess, your post says 'challenge' but it really indicate 'boredom' is the problem. Maybe some of that is your own behavior? For example, you don't 'need' to run everything 3 times. Especially on a first life character. Maybe that was the problem? Regulating yourself starting out to repeating the same stuff 3 times? Try x1 and move to the next quest. There is SO MUCH xp in this game between quests and exploreres, you don't need to run something x3. If you are seeking to try something on Elite, post your lfm asking for an ELite opener.

well, when i started playing 28p char, doing quests on elite, even in korthos was really hard, not impossible but hard, now i roll up new toon, 32b, cleric healbot with 8str, and i can do korthos solo on elite, spending in quest 2minutes longer than i do on multi tr barb, for me its not boredom, its just not a chalenge, chalenge is when i have to think how to fight mobs and don't get killed, not running and killing everything that moves, elite was "for balanced party" as description said, now its not, and im not talking that having op gear and PL etc, makes me more powerful and i cant see a chalenge there, i'm saying that even my new, newbish random looted gear toon can easily do elites. in my dictionary this is far from chalenge,
I don't run anything 3x to get to elite, on first life i could do everything on normal and reach 20, but when i started playing, not having any single pack i was running on elite when i could, or nhe if noone wanted to open quest for us, but i needed to run elite to get favor for more packs.
as for looking for elite opener, i myself often had such lfm, even this week on new toon, and enerdhil also stated this, that you can wait long hours before someone join, if any1 joins

as for my lfm, i don't know how should i comment them, i think lfm on some q he, stating what q i want to do, saying: name of the quest, he, bb, byoh. lvl range qlvl-qlvl+2 opened for all classes can be wrong, as for my reputation... nobody ever had problem with me that i'm aware of, nobody even squelched me, trying to be polite, and ****, barely ever anybody joins...even when i make a new toon, and you know what else? if i see some lfm for quest i'm interested in, i end up doing that quest only with person who post it. and its not only me but lots of people i talk to have this problem. and not only on gland. lately i logged on wayfinder, including me. on who was 14 peopleprobably few more on anonymous...but hey, lets set lfm and wait for opener few hours, threnal few days, and sit and wait... that surely won't get us bored ;)

[Darkmits]

Korthos is though an exception to the rule of Elite being hard. Other quests are near impossible to do on your own with a hireling at level unless you play a FotM build, or they require you to do bluff pulls, employ cc, or send in a bulky hireling that has high survivability (even if low damage) and have that clear packs while you stand at a distance with invisibility healing it.

[Algreg]

Korthos is though an exception to the rule of Elite being hard. Other quests are near impossible to do on your own with a hireling at level unless you play a FotM build, or they require you to do bluff pulls, employ cc, or send in a bulky hireling that has high survivability (even if low damage) and have that clear packs while you stand at a distance with invisibility healing it.

people have been soloing heroic elite way before everyone was a completionist with a bunch of epic past lives on top of it. If you mean a useful, good build by "FotM" - yes, on a bad build you will not do well. Good thing good builds are available to everyone.

[Erdrique]

Wow, definitely an interesting thread here. I applaud the opening poster for his/her passion in trying to improve the game but I don't think our favorite game is in such dire straits as they seem to suggest. I agree that the game has seen a population decline over the years but lets be a little realistic here, the game is going on ten years now. Seeing a decline is nothing knew and the game is nowhere near it was during the great "shutout" years just prior to DDO going to free to play. I still see a number of LFMs up on Thelanis, maybe more so over the last few weeks. This makes more sense as the summer months have started to wind down and more players aren't spending as much time outside enjoying the summer time weather. Advertising is a matter of discussion though. DDO is primarily advertised, more of less, by its community more than anything else. Primarily through the various TwitchTV channels, YouTube channels, blogs, and other fan sites. I guess you can add YouTube gaming to this as well. It would be inspiring to see some more corporate advertising but I doubt that will appear any time soon. Overall though, DDO is far from dying, although it isn't extremely prosperous either. However, we are getting a new data center, we are getting new content, and we are seeing now improvements to game. All of this suggests to me, that it isn't going anywhere anytime soon :).

[Livmo]

Wow, definitely an interesting thread here. I applaud the opening poster for his/her passion in trying to improve the game but I don't think our favorite game is in such dire straits as they seem to suggest. I agree that the game has seen a population decline over the years but lets be a little realistic here, the game is going on ten years now. Seeing a decline is nothing knew and the game is nowhere near it was during the great "shutout" years just prior to DDO going to free to play. I still see a number of LFMs up on Thelanis, maybe more so over the last few weeks. This makes more sense as the summer months have started to wind down and more players aren't spending as much time outside enjoying the summer time weather. Advertising is a matter of discussion though. DDO is primarily advertised, more of less, by its community more than anything else. Primarily through the various TwitchTV channels, YouTube channels, blogs, and other fan sites. I guess you can add YouTube gaming to this as well. It would be inspiring to see some more corporate advertising but I doubt that will appear any time soon. Overall though, DDO is far from dying, although it isn't extremely prosperous either. However, we are getting a new data center, we are getting new content, and we are seeing now improvements to game. All of this suggests to me, that it isn't going anywhere anytime soon :).

Severlin and his team are tearing it up! I feel this has been the best year for DDO since I started playing. Although in DDO years I'm still a little fry. I hope the current Dev team stays around for a longtime.

BTW tearing it up is a positive SK8-boarding phrasae from the 80's, as in "Dude!", "Did you see Lance Mountain tear up that half-pipe?". "Yeah dude, it was rightious!"

Moar please!

[Qhualor]

Korthos is though an exception to the rule of Elite being hard. Other quests are near impossible to do on your own with a hireling at level unless you play a FotM build, or they require you to do bluff pulls, employ cc, or send in a bulky hireling that has high survivability (even if low damage) and have that clear packs while you stand at a distance with invisibility healing it.

you forgot to add a winky

;)

[Darkmits]

people have been soloing heroic elite way before everyone was a completionist with a bunch of epic past lives on top of it. If you mean a useful, good build by "FotM" - yes, on a bad build you will not do well. Good thing good builds are available to everyone.Yes they have, but they were the minority, and they had knowledge of the quest beforehand as well as maybe the wiki open by the side. As for the "useful good build", those are limited and at most 1 or 2 per main class. You can't say that because, for example, Swashbuckler is effective for a Bard, that Spellsinger is equally effective since you can level up as Swashbuckler then change Enhancements at lvl20. I'm not talking about intentionally bad choices like making a FvS/Paladin/Sorc 7/7/6 build on a Half-orc with 6 base Cha, I'm talking about legitimate in-game options.

[Algreg]

Yes they have, but they were the minority, and they had knowledge of the quest beforehand as well as maybe the wiki open by the side. As for the "useful good build", those are limited and at most 1 or 2 per main class. You can't say that because, for example, Swashbuckler is effective for a Bard, that Spellsinger is equally effective since you can level up as Swashbuckler then change Enhancements at lvl20. I'm not talking about intentionally bad choices like making a FvS/Paladin/Sorc 7/7/6 build on a Half-orc with 6 base Cha, I'm talking about legitimate in-game options.

debatable.

hence you don´t have to start on elite.

so that makes 2 x existing classes useful builds, man, yeah, that is really pigeonholing.

what is a "legitimate in-game option"?

[Darkmits]

Hence you don´t have to start on elite.No, you don't. But this isn't about starting with Elite, but about the ability to solo it at level for BB bonus.


so that makes 2 x existing classes useful builds, man, yeah, that is really pigeonholing.Pidgeonholing is forcing a player to play a different style than what they want in able to progress. If I want to play Spellsinger and can't do anything, then I am pidgeonholed to go Swashbuckler. Others do not have a problem with that, others do. It's subjective. Of course I do not expect every build in the game to be equally viable, but the problem with DDO is that effectiveness in different enhancement trees is huge.


what is a "legitimate in-game option"?This will be an interesting discussion if we open it. It's subjective and it also depends on the content that it will be tested agaisnt. I can't exactly type down rules for what I consider legitimate or not. Generally, I'd say a build is legitimate if it can perform well in its intended design without being significantly lower in effectiveness than other builds that are designed to perform the same task. For example, a Rog 1/Classwhatever 19 build that ensures that it will have high success or disarming every trap and opening every lock is a legitimate trapper build. But a Rog20 with only 1 point in Disable Device and Open Lock isn't a legitimate trapper build.

DDO has too blured roles in a group since it has adopted the "solo-together-with-others" mentality instead of "work-as-a-group". The only common metric in different builds is dps and sustainability. In which case, every build that can clear content is legitimate, and builds that cannot clear content that others can aren't legitimate for that content.

Of course I know you'll find some hole in my logic above to use as a counterargument.