Dance
03-14-2016, 07:26 PM
This is by far my favorite mmorpg and has been since its release, however there were a lot of changes to the game that ultimately lead to me taking a long break to eventually quitting. I like the idea of unlocking the game in "adventure packs" and I love how close the game holds true to 3.5e / 4.0. So I am going to cover multiple areas of what I like, and don't like about the game and what my thoughts are on improving in those areas:
Adventure Paths:
The major issue I noticed with this is that once you provide so many adventure paths, old ones become obsolete and the player base gets divided among the different packs. No body tells you which packs are popular or used, and with the current player count it is extremely hard to find groups for that obscure pack that nobody plays. When I first introduced a friend to the game I had to tell him to get Deleras Tomb over Ruins of Threnal because people actually played Deleras, and threnal was a path that you solo'd one time just to get a single item at the end. The same goes for questing, you buy an adventure path that has a raid and you have to wait a month to get a group to flag, and then another month before actually getting accepted into a raid, the same goes for running epics.
I think there are two ways that this can be fixed, the first is to provide a weekly or monthly "featured guest pass", so instead of the news letters providing coupon codes for free potions of healing, to instead provide an "hour guest pass on X adventure path". This way we can revive some of the old and unused adventure paths, as well as give players a chance to test out an adventure path before buying. The second way would be to re-balance existing items. Instead of producing more adventure paths, instead touch up existing adventure paths by making their items and loot scale with the newer content. If you try to run an epic Sands quest, someone is going to state the obvious "why are you farming this item when the newer packs have a much better item that you can get quicker"... looking back, why did I farm sands for 6 months straight for a "Thornlord" when I could have simply opened "Pinion" from the party box for free.
Items:
This is somewhat covered above with the adventure paths. I think that the game needs a re-balance on older items before it introduces newer items or newer content. Also, certain items need to be scaled with their levels a bit more, and npc pricing should also scale with the quality of the item, instead of the items level prerequisites (like, why is lacerating the same cost and level as bleeding? Weapons generally scale on even levels, why not make lacerating add 1 level)
Classes:
I like the state of the classes, I just wish that going straight 20 in a tree gave more incentive then multi-classing, in a sense this is very reminiscent of 3.5e. I absolutely love mutli-classing, I wouldn't change anything there, just give a little extra boon to players who commit to the capstone 20.
PVP:
I believe there were two major reasons why everyone left this game, I believe this is one of the reasons. Don't get me wrong, there were some problems with PvP before, but I believe that the lack of PvP balance is what ultimately turned people away from the game. Here are the major problems I experienced and my suggestions:
Epic Destinies - The first change I would be to implement Epic and Non-Epic pvp rooms. When you enter the wayward lobster, instead of walking into the back room you will click a portal that will warp you into the pvp room, separating players with epic levels from players without (Levels 1-20, and Levels 21-30, if you go in the non-epic room, all of your ED bonuses/abilities will be turned off). If you wish to show off how cool your character's epic destinies are, then go 1 hit other people who want to do the same thing.
Player Holding - A major problem with the old pvp was that players were dancing / petrifying / capering / stunning players and preventing them from from doing anything for long periods of time. I'm sure turbine was getting sick of support tickets saying "This guy has kept me here for an hour now, please ban him or get me out". In the terms of service it states that preventing a player from enjoying or playing the game is against the rules, why subject yourself to all the incoming tickets when you could simply add a "death" option to the game? If a player says "okay you won" then let them commit suicide in the pvp area and move out. If you do not know where to put it, then make it an option on a scoreboard window for players to view their current session kills / deaths (clear it upon leaving the pvp area). This also prevents the high level players from ladder blocking the low level players who fall in.
Anonymous PvP - Just a suggestion, only show the names for players whom you are partied with. Everyone else just sees your class and level instead. Most online games today reduce toxic gamers by preventing opposing players from communicating. This shouldn't have to be the case, players have the ability to mute, it is simply a suggestion.
Looking for Party changes (LFP):
A big problem I have, and see, is players who want to do specific quests but do not want to be the party leader, or who are looking for players but cannot find any. The LFP option is nice, but it is rarely used. Instead, can players have the option to check off quests (from the list) that they are looking to play, and party leaders who post a specific quest, will see a list of all interested players (perhaps next to the list of pending requests to join) that they can invite. This goes both ways, so party leaders do not have to wait for a half hour to an hour just to find out there was not enough interest.
Pay to Win:
I mentioned there were two reasons why I believe everyone quit this game, and this is the other reason. Pay to win doesn't help the game, it hurts it. Think of the average person who spends years farming specific items, just to find a new pack come out that basically gives them a better version of that item for free. I remember running ToD for +3 stat tomes for the longest time, or 20 run raids (with 3 day timers, that is atleast 2 months of playing), just to see "+4 stat tomes for sale!" or "+5" ... etc. Instead of rewarding players who stick around for years, you are punishing their time and efforts spent by making it obsolete.
My advice... stop the pay to win. People I talk to about this game ask me first before joining "is it pay to win" because no one likes playing a game that can be simply bought, without that sense of earning something, it is not worth investing time into. I think if turbine is really head strong about a p2win environment, they should atleast scale it with the years that players have invested into the game, or the progress of the player. For example, removing +3 stat tombs and up from the ddo store and unlocking them only for characters who have completed a number of lifes equal to or greater than the stat tomb they wish to purchase.
Conclusion:
These are just some ideas that I have had, I am sure there are some other changes and even better ideas out there. I did not see a specific forum for these types of posts so I am posting it here in hopes that other players and game developers can chime in as well. My apologies if anything above came out as a rant, I am not trying to be negative or harsh upon the game designers and developers, this game is amazing and I only want to see it get better.
Adventure Paths:
The major issue I noticed with this is that once you provide so many adventure paths, old ones become obsolete and the player base gets divided among the different packs. No body tells you which packs are popular or used, and with the current player count it is extremely hard to find groups for that obscure pack that nobody plays. When I first introduced a friend to the game I had to tell him to get Deleras Tomb over Ruins of Threnal because people actually played Deleras, and threnal was a path that you solo'd one time just to get a single item at the end. The same goes for questing, you buy an adventure path that has a raid and you have to wait a month to get a group to flag, and then another month before actually getting accepted into a raid, the same goes for running epics.
I think there are two ways that this can be fixed, the first is to provide a weekly or monthly "featured guest pass", so instead of the news letters providing coupon codes for free potions of healing, to instead provide an "hour guest pass on X adventure path". This way we can revive some of the old and unused adventure paths, as well as give players a chance to test out an adventure path before buying. The second way would be to re-balance existing items. Instead of producing more adventure paths, instead touch up existing adventure paths by making their items and loot scale with the newer content. If you try to run an epic Sands quest, someone is going to state the obvious "why are you farming this item when the newer packs have a much better item that you can get quicker"... looking back, why did I farm sands for 6 months straight for a "Thornlord" when I could have simply opened "Pinion" from the party box for free.
Items:
This is somewhat covered above with the adventure paths. I think that the game needs a re-balance on older items before it introduces newer items or newer content. Also, certain items need to be scaled with their levels a bit more, and npc pricing should also scale with the quality of the item, instead of the items level prerequisites (like, why is lacerating the same cost and level as bleeding? Weapons generally scale on even levels, why not make lacerating add 1 level)
Classes:
I like the state of the classes, I just wish that going straight 20 in a tree gave more incentive then multi-classing, in a sense this is very reminiscent of 3.5e. I absolutely love mutli-classing, I wouldn't change anything there, just give a little extra boon to players who commit to the capstone 20.
PVP:
I believe there were two major reasons why everyone left this game, I believe this is one of the reasons. Don't get me wrong, there were some problems with PvP before, but I believe that the lack of PvP balance is what ultimately turned people away from the game. Here are the major problems I experienced and my suggestions:
Epic Destinies - The first change I would be to implement Epic and Non-Epic pvp rooms. When you enter the wayward lobster, instead of walking into the back room you will click a portal that will warp you into the pvp room, separating players with epic levels from players without (Levels 1-20, and Levels 21-30, if you go in the non-epic room, all of your ED bonuses/abilities will be turned off). If you wish to show off how cool your character's epic destinies are, then go 1 hit other people who want to do the same thing.
Player Holding - A major problem with the old pvp was that players were dancing / petrifying / capering / stunning players and preventing them from from doing anything for long periods of time. I'm sure turbine was getting sick of support tickets saying "This guy has kept me here for an hour now, please ban him or get me out". In the terms of service it states that preventing a player from enjoying or playing the game is against the rules, why subject yourself to all the incoming tickets when you could simply add a "death" option to the game? If a player says "okay you won" then let them commit suicide in the pvp area and move out. If you do not know where to put it, then make it an option on a scoreboard window for players to view their current session kills / deaths (clear it upon leaving the pvp area). This also prevents the high level players from ladder blocking the low level players who fall in.
Anonymous PvP - Just a suggestion, only show the names for players whom you are partied with. Everyone else just sees your class and level instead. Most online games today reduce toxic gamers by preventing opposing players from communicating. This shouldn't have to be the case, players have the ability to mute, it is simply a suggestion.
Looking for Party changes (LFP):
A big problem I have, and see, is players who want to do specific quests but do not want to be the party leader, or who are looking for players but cannot find any. The LFP option is nice, but it is rarely used. Instead, can players have the option to check off quests (from the list) that they are looking to play, and party leaders who post a specific quest, will see a list of all interested players (perhaps next to the list of pending requests to join) that they can invite. This goes both ways, so party leaders do not have to wait for a half hour to an hour just to find out there was not enough interest.
Pay to Win:
I mentioned there were two reasons why I believe everyone quit this game, and this is the other reason. Pay to win doesn't help the game, it hurts it. Think of the average person who spends years farming specific items, just to find a new pack come out that basically gives them a better version of that item for free. I remember running ToD for +3 stat tomes for the longest time, or 20 run raids (with 3 day timers, that is atleast 2 months of playing), just to see "+4 stat tomes for sale!" or "+5" ... etc. Instead of rewarding players who stick around for years, you are punishing their time and efforts spent by making it obsolete.
My advice... stop the pay to win. People I talk to about this game ask me first before joining "is it pay to win" because no one likes playing a game that can be simply bought, without that sense of earning something, it is not worth investing time into. I think if turbine is really head strong about a p2win environment, they should atleast scale it with the years that players have invested into the game, or the progress of the player. For example, removing +3 stat tombs and up from the ddo store and unlocking them only for characters who have completed a number of lifes equal to or greater than the stat tomb they wish to purchase.
Conclusion:
These are just some ideas that I have had, I am sure there are some other changes and even better ideas out there. I did not see a specific forum for these types of posts so I am posting it here in hopes that other players and game developers can chime in as well. My apologies if anything above came out as a rant, I am not trying to be negative or harsh upon the game designers and developers, this game is amazing and I only want to see it get better.