2020 Producer's Letter Has Arrived

[MaeveTuohy]

https://www.ddo.com/en/news/look-ahead-producers-letter-january-2020

There is much to be excited about in this.

Thanks, Severlin, for getting it out earlier, rather than later.

Going to have to read up about the Feywild as I am unfamiliar with it.

New versions of old raids? Bring it.

[FlavoredSoul]

Looks really good and im pretty exci...

wait a second...


doing so will gain you the experience necessary to push past level 30 for the first time in DDO history.


past level 30

How about we don't increase the level cap? Unless they find a creative way to do this it's going to invalidate a ton of content.

:mad::mad::mad:

[AlmGhandi]

https://www.ddo.com/en/news/look-ahead-producers-letter-january-2020

There is much to be excited about in this.


and if not excited... at least much to distract people from the "don't take away mai easy-buffs" stuff....
It is a new era of forum posting.

[MaeveTuohy]

How about we don't increase the level cap? Unless they find a creative way to do this it's going to invalidate a ton of content.

:mad::mad::mad:

Yes, not very keen on that either, but it is clearly a done deal.

Maybe its a good thing I have only had the chance to do Too Hot to Handle twice and Project Nemesis never.

[J1NG]

Whilst I'm not overly hot on the idea of 30+, I'm not against it either. I have far too many capped toons on hand that need something to do at "cap". So I'm cautiously going to wait and see what happens there.

J1NG

[AlmGhandi]

Whilst I'm not overly hot on the idea of 30+, I'm not against it either. I have far too many capped toons on hand that need something to do at "cap". So I'm cautiously going to wait and see what happens there.

And then they came for the bards...

[vryxnr]

64-bit client?! YES!
Shifter race?! YES!
New quests/adventure packs?! YES!
Updating old stuff and making epic/legendary versions? YES!
All the stuff with update 45?! Mostly yes! My contentions atm are the long ass pre-animation for NHB, and worry about 2HF single target dps still falling behind, well, everything else.

HCL coming back!? Please not too soon. Having this more than once a year is not something I want. I enjoyed it, and lvoe the cosmetic rewards, but I also have friends who play softcore who are not VIP (for a variety of reasons) and friends who are VIP but do not enjoy the idea of permadeath, and I don't want to alienate/abandon them, plus I have long term goals for my softcore characters as well. I'd be happy with once every 2 years, but please no more often than once per year.

Level cap increase?! uh... not pumped about that, sorry. Obviously I will level up to the new cap and farm loot there, but meh, it's not something I'm looking forwards to (heck, I haven't even finished gearing up all my characters at level 30, let alone all the heroic, racial, iconic and epic past lives *falls farther behind*)

edit: now, if it's not a level cap increase, but a new form of exp that can only be gained while at cap that can be used for various other things, I can get behind that if it's done well. What that would look like though? I couldn't say at this moment.

[AlmGhandi]

Shifter race?! YES!


Im too old to get excited about the new-fangled stuff.

[Clemeit]

The 64-bit client can improve the overall performance of the game for many

Faster engine and more RAM utilization is good, but does this also mean multi-core support?

[J1NG]

Does this mean multi-core support?

At the very least, larger memory allocation involved to the client, so hopefully less choppy with certain things inside DDO. Multi-Core itself probably wouldn't have much impact on stuff anyway.

J1NG

[Clemeit]

Multi-Core itself probably wouldn't have much impact on stuff anyway.

J1NG

Multi-core support would actually have a huge impact on performance in public areas such as Eveningstar and slayer areas such as The Land of Barovia where single-core limitations are the main reason for lower frame rates. Rendering that many objects maxes out a single core and caps frame rates way lower than they otherwise would be, causing CPU bottlenecks even on modern machines.

DDO maxing a single core, limiting FPS:
https://i.imgur.com/LoJ7ClN.png
The Land of Barovia, all settings maxed.

[J1NG]

Multi-core support would actually have a huge impact on performance in public areas such as Eveningstar and slayer areas such as The Land of Barovia where single-core limitations are the main reason for lower frame rates. Rendering that many objects maxes out a single core and caps frame rates way lower than they otherwise would be, causing CPU bottlenecks even on modern machines.

Wait... I run those areas all the time and never experience any issues that you're describing. Do you have a clip/video captured of this? Because (as said) I'm not seeing the same thing on my rigs. Would like to see if there's something else that might be of help in those places when players experience those issues.

:: edit ::

What are the rest of those specs and settings you're using? Resolution? Mine also hits 100% one core, but I don't experience the issues you have described. Mind we share notes?

J1NG

[Clemeit]

Wait... I run those areas all the time and never experience any issues that you're describing. Do you have a clip/video captured of this? Because (as said) I'm not seeing the same thing on my rigs. Would like to see if there's something else that might be of help in those places when players experience those issues.

:: edit ::

What are the rest of those specs and settings you're using? Resolution? Mine also hits 100% one core, but I don't experience the issues you have described. Mind we share notes?

J1NG

Hmm... that is interesting. Here's the build:
CPU: i7-6700k
GPU: GTX 1080ti
SSD: 960 Evo M.2 (tried installing DDO on different drives. No effect)

Game resolution: 3440x1440 (tried 2560x1440. No effect)
Game settings: Maxed

I could take a screen recording, but this is what's happening:

Normally stable FPS capped at 100 (to match monitor's refresh rate)
Drops to ~50 in Eveningstar, and ~60 in The Land of Barovia
Reducing Object Draw Distance significantly improves performance (+25 FPS)
Reducing Landscape Draw Distance marginally improves performance (+10 FPS)


Other observations:
Inside of other city wards and quests, FPS stable/capped at 100. No cores maxed. That drop in FPS happens exclusively when the core DDO is running on maxes out.

Here's House J under identical settings for comparison:
https://i.imgur.com/DdIdh5O.png

[Kaboom2112]

Just saying, if they add more XP to Epic TRing expect a bunch of people going to Boston with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.

[Clemeit]

Just saying, if they add more XP to Epic TRing expect a bunch of people going to Boston with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch.

What they should really do is scale the current level cap up to a new one, keeping the same amount of required XP to reach it. That way players would obtain awards at a slightly quicker pace and have access to a bunch of new content without raising the amount of required experience.

[Anuulified]

Looks really good and im pretty exci...

wait a second...





How about we don't increase the level cap? Unless they find a creative way to do this it's going to invalidate a ton of content.

:mad::mad::mad:

How about we DO pass that level cap, like we have done many times before, and get to where we need to be. You dont invalidate content, you simply make it part of leveling in ddo, but for your sake, DOOM!

[DRoark]

Horrible idea on the level cap, probably the #1 bad idea, the #2 one being Inquisitor, and you KNOW what that did. There's no reason at all to have more than 10 epic levels.
You have to adjust/add more loot (and you ALWAYS complain about balance). This will lead to more creep, more nerfs, and a headache we don't need.

Focus on the new races, content, and fixing OLD problems. Don't screw up the game even more. Seriously. I know you want to add another hamster wheel... just... don't.

[Blase]

Hmm... that is interesting. Here's the build:
CPU: i7-6700k
GPU: GTX 1080ti
SSD: 960 Evo M.2 (tried installing DDO on different drives. No effect)

Game resolution: 3440x1440 (tried 2560x1440. No effect)
Game settings: Maxed

I could take a screen recording, but this is what's happening:

Normally stable FPS capped at 100 (to match monitor's refresh rate)
Drops to ~50 in Eveningstar, and ~60 in The Land of Barovia
Reducing Object Draw Distance significantly improves performance (+25 FPS)
Reducing Landscape Draw Distance marginally improves performance (+10 FPS)




There with ya brother. Xeon, six cores, twelve threads, 3.6ghz, 32gb of ram, GTX1080TI running to a 4k screen. I have the exact same experience.

[fatherpirate]

I would not worry too deeply into any of the letter.

It was very general and we really have no info on how it will be implemented
except it a few mentioned items.

Level cap raise and hinting it might be tied to 'something'
no clue ... am sure we will get more later

Feywild, cool

HCL is now got a new infernal bossman and
will be a regular event.

Unless they shorten it (they might) I will
guess twice a year. He did not say annual event.
If it got dropped to 2 months or less, might go three times but
my best guess is twice.

well stuff to look forward to.

PEACE

[karatemack]

How about we DO pass that level cap, like we have done many times before, and get to where we need to be. You dont invalidate content, you simply make it part of leveling in ddo, but for your sake, DOOM!

To be fair... MoTU (and afterwards) caused many players to leave the game. It may not have meant the game shutting down, but there was definitely a shift in active users which was distinct enough for veteran players to distinguish the pre-MoTU game from post-MoTU game.

While we don't have the details on what is being planned, it is still valid to raise concerns about adding additional levels to the game based on current/past experiences:



We've seen this movie before. If a level increase IS deployed the same way as the last time, it will lead to large pockets of player frustration.
There's already too much grind (especially for alts/new/returning players). Without mitigating the outstanding PL issues, upward expansion could be very bad depending on their specific plans (IE: another Reaper).
Power creep has a history of seeping into the old content in the game. Epic PLs do far more to minimize Heroic content than cargohold buffs ever did.
People call for server merges constantly... while easy to dismiss as "forum whining" these are players with real feelings of frustration over having difficulty finding groups. Spreading the playerbase over another layer of content to grind through likely won't help this. So... IF the plan is level 30-40... and IF there are level restrictions on new raids/content, then this will divide a playerbase which is already spread thin.


Here's hoping SSG has a solid plan to address these concerns and that we can all enjoy running through new content... together!

[FlavoredSoul]

How about we DO pass that level cap, like we have done many times before, and get to where we need to be. You dont invalidate content, you simply make it part of leveling in ddo, but for your sake, DOOM!

Being blindly optimistic towards a level cap increase when it has caused problems the last several times it's happened is foolish, you can't dismiss obviously bad decisions with "DOOM".

How many Shrouds or Abbots (Mark of Death doesn't count... and even if it did it barely gets run too) get run anymore? Caught in the web? Old endgame/raids get left in the dust every level cap increase, it's not just raids either tons of content just gets completely ignored because it's gear is no longer relevant, even slavelords is basically obsoleted by sharn.

And really the obsoleting of content is the smallest problem with a level cap raise, the population as it is is horribly spread out over 30 levels right now, adding any more will only worsen the problem of dead LFM. A server merge or crosserver play could alleviate this issue but if we don't get that then I cannot support anything to make grouping even harder than before.

While It's perfectly possible for them to pull this off and make it work... I highly doubt it given Turbine/SSG's track record.

[Bradik_Losdar]

Being blindly optimistic towards a level cap increase when it has caused problems the last several times it's happened is foolish, you can't dismiss obviously bad decisions with "DOOM".

How many Shrouds or Abbots (Mark of Death doesn't count... and even if it did it barely gets run too) get run anymore? Caught in the web? Old endgame/raids get left in the dust every level cap increase, it's not just raids either tons of content just gets completely ignored because it's gear is no longer relevant, even slavelords is basically obsoleted by sharn.

And really the obsoleting of content is the smallest problem with a level cap raise, the population as it is is horribly spread out over 30 levels right now, adding any more will only worsen the problem of dead LFM. A server merge or crosserver play could alleviate this issue but if we don't get that then I cannot support anything to make grouping even harder than before.

While It's perfectly possible for them to pull this off and make it work... I highly doubt it given Turbine/SSG's track record.

Well said.

Moving past Level 30 is a huge mistake and will make the playerbase become/feel even smaller.

[Gniewomir]

I might sound like a pessimist, but honestly i see really nothing to be excited, only a lot of dissapointment.

New expansion? Well, since they noticed expansions makes a lot of money, it's like a regular, every year thing now. 3-4 updates per year, 1 expansion per year, just a regular thing.
New packs? Race? See above.
Progression past lvl 30? Pure evil, already too much grind in game.
Harcore? I see no reason to waste time, still got 2398342 past lifes and 10393mln rxp to get on normal servers.

Nothing really new, nothing suprising, no major changes. Just more of the stuff we're getting every year.

[Maraq]

Oh no!
This is how it ends! - 64-bit client...

Another one MMORPG I can't play :_(

Or there will be 2 clients?

[SerPounce]

Everything else sounds cool, but I just don’t understand the point of adding more epic commoner levels. None of the epic level stuff (as opposed to destinies which are entirely separate from levels) has made character building more interesting or gameplay more fun. Cap increases have just made good content obsolete and added bloat to leveling.

This dev team does so much right. If you look at my comments they’re overwhelmingly positive, but I don’t get this.

[RockHeavy]

Oh no!
This is how it ends! - 64-bit client...

Another one MMORPG I can't play :_(

Or there will be 2 clients?

I would think there will be both clients available... but why would a 64-bit client prevent you from playing?

[Cantor]

I would think there will be both clients available... but why would a 64-bit client prevent you from playing?

b/c they play on a potato.

I've had a few friends in game who don't play anything else and use an old garbage pc.

[salmag]

Shifters - Very Nice. Good to see an Eberron core class finally in game.

Cap increase would be a good idea, if cross server questing or merge was to take place. Otherwise, the player base would be spread too thin.

Hardcore League is another thing that spreads the player base too thin, causing dead servers. It was nice as a "one-off." Maybe make it truly hardcore by not allowing ships and buffs (although that was a seller in the store).

New quests and adventures are always welcome. ALWAYS.
Feywild seems interesting.

64 bit client is welcome as well. Maybe that will help alleviate some lagging concerns.

Just don't nerf IPS. Only nerf Inquisitive "Universal" tree.

[Mizyrlou]

I'm really intrigued over what QoL stuff they've got in the works. I'm looking forward to anything that'll make organizing the shared bank easier and I still dream of someday having a proper guild bank available.

[myliftkk_v2]

And really the obsoleting of content is the smallest problem with a level cap raise, the population as it is is horribly spread out over 30 levels right now, adding any more will only worsen the problem of dead LFM. A server merge or crosserver play could alleviate this issue but if we don't get that then I cannot support anything to make grouping even harder than before.

Yep, let's make the slice of bread bigger and spread the players out over it like an even thinner layer of butter.

Does an MMO fail to be an MMO when one can no longer find another player in the game?

[LurkingVeteran]

The content in Sev's letter is interesting, but I think content is not everything. The most noteworthy change in DDO over the last several years may be that they finally added an interesting gameplay feat in the new Spring Attack. Don't underestimate gameplay aspects. A new quest provides some variety the first N times you run it, but after that only fun gameplay keeps people from burning out on the game. If a 64bit client by some magic fixes lag, that would be really amazing though.

[myliftkk_v2]

I'm really intrigued over what QoL stuff they've got in the works. I'm looking forward to anything that'll make organizing the shared bank easier and I still dream of someday having a proper guild bank available.
A truly organized single common bank would be a real carrot to longtime players like myself who can barely keep track of inventory spread across tens of mules. I'd pay a premium for that, provided I never ever have to create and log onto another mule again to find some piece of twink gear for a specific class and level range.

[DRoark]

Yeah, if they raise the cap, the character spread will thin out the server more. It's just not a good choice. I can see earning XP post-30 for
alternate rewards (like a token to turn in for a random list of named loot), but adding higher levels is just the wrong way to go.

[Kutalp]

https://andysterndesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Odilon-Ozare-Meets-Bob-Buckhorn-3.jpg

[SiliconScout]

Yeah, if they raise the cap, the character spread will thin out the server more. It's just not a good choice. I can see earning XP post-30 for
alternate rewards (like a token to turn in for a random list of named loot), but adding higher levels is just the wrong way to go.THIS.

This idea is a scquillion times better than raising the cap.

Raising the cap will NOT help the game, it just won't.

+1 sir.

[Andu_Indorin]

How about an update on customer service?

"Out with the old, in with the new … "

[AlmGhandi]

How about an update on customer service?

"Out with the old, in with the new … "

In game customer service?

Recall, reset and restart.

[AlmGhandi]

https://andysterndesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Odilon-Ozare-Meets-Bob-Buckhorn-3.jpg

That is not a cap.

[Anuulified]

Being blindly optimistic towards a level cap increase when it has caused problems the last several times it's happened is foolish, you can't dismiss obviously bad decisions with "DOOM".

How many Shrouds or Abbots (Mark of Death doesn't count... and even if it did it barely gets run too) get run anymore? Caught in the web? Old endgame/raids get left in the dust every level cap increase, it's not just raids either tons of content just gets completely ignored because it's gear is no longer relevant, even slavelords is basically obsoleted by sharn.

And really the obsoleting of content is the smallest problem with a level cap raise, the population as it is is horribly spread out over 30 levels right now, adding any more will only worsen the problem of dead LFM. A server merge or crosserver play could alleviate this issue but if we don't get that then I cannot support anything to make grouping even harder than before.

While It's perfectly possible for them to pull this off and make it work... I highly doubt it given Turbine/SSG's track record.

Obviously good decisions, since their decisions have kept the lights on for over a decade now. Also I tend to raid every Sat and Sun and am hoping those same raids are again bumped up for the level cap. Come to Khyber our population is very healthy.

[Faltout]

Obviously good decisions, since their decisions have kept the lights on for over a decade now. Also I tend to raid every Sat and Sun and am hoping those same raids are again bumped up for the level cap. Come to Khyber our population is very healthy.
No, no it isn't.

[J1NG]

Hmm... that is interesting. Here's the build:
CPU: i7-6700k
GPU: GTX 1080ti
SSD: 960 Evo M.2 (tried installing DDO on different drives. No effect)

Game resolution: 3440x1440 (tried 2560x1440. No effect)
Game settings: Maxed

I could take a screen recording, but this is what's happening:

Normally stable FPS capped at 100 (to match monitor's refresh rate)
Drops to ~50 in Eveningstar, and ~60 in The Land of Barovia
Reducing Object Draw Distance significantly improves performance (+25 FPS)
Reducing Landscape Draw Distance marginally improves performance (+10 FPS)


Other observations:
Inside of other city wards and quests, FPS stable/capped at 100. No cores maxed. That drop in FPS happens exclusively when the core DDO is running on maxes out.

Here's House J under identical settings for comparison:
https://i.imgur.com/DdIdh5O.png


There with ya brother. Xeon, six cores, twelve threads, 3.6ghz, 32gb of ram, GTX1080TI running to a 4k screen. I have the exact same experience.

OK, I've ran some tests here that do show that there are frames being dropped in these locations (I just don't notice mine as much because I run mine at a lower resolution and the GPU doesn't have to work as hard so it maintains most of the frames easily enough).

Interesting, both of you who are noticing severe drops appear to be using ultra high resolutions and frequencies. And I originally thought that might have been a contributing factor to the issues experienced. But, the issue is not exclusive to ultra high resolutions or frequencies either I discovered.

I dropped the resolution on one of my rigs down to 800x600, all settings turned off or down to lowest setting. And it too can hit 100% core usage - but only rarely (just like normal for my rigs), but, of relevance to the matter, is that it also has frame drops in the same areas that you both have described and that I have used for testing. (I used the thin strip of road behind Elminster and in front of the bank in Eveningstar; is has shadows, trees and npcs, and overlooks distant areas in the horizon. I run from East to West and back again. The areas where the frames drop are identical on any resolution.)

Assuming it was a CPU single process issue limiting it to the lower frames (or reducing it from a higher average) and not something else, the super low resolution should have kept the frames consistent throughout compared to having everything on and it would cause the CPU to hit 100%. Yet this isn't the case from the testing I have conducted just now (it stalls even at a lower CPU core usage - nowhere near 100%). So I'm once again, not entirely sure that getting DDO to become multi-process capable is really going to improve things for those with advanced/heavy gaming rigs.

Of note, I can confirm that storage speeds and access times should not be a major factor in this, as I am using a Ramdisk (12-16GB/s) for DDO.
Having excess memory is not of direct impact (I've done previous tests before where cold boot times are improved after a second time if using slow storage from Windos caching the files before and posted on forum) as I have 32GB RAM available (64GB total, 32GB partitioned for Ramdisk).
Resolution of the game is not a factor; since 2560x1440 and 800x600 has the same hicups in the same areas.
CPU is not an issue; as I have ran into the frame drops at roughly the same locations, on both quad and hexacore CPUs.

Therefore, I surmise that the issue is something else inside DDO that is causing the frame drops you've experienced and described. Possibly unpacking of graphical assets or something else that causes the drop in frames. If that's the case, even if DDO becomes multi-core capable, if the Devs don't know what's causing that and don't implement something to take advantage of the extra core capability, it'll still have the same issue.

Anyone else have any ideas on this? I'm fairly certain the test points above covers the issue being described and eliminates the issue to the client being single core/thread being the cause of dropped frames.

J1NG

[Kutalp]

That is not a cap.


Indeed it was the :pcap before getting raised.

Thats is called a Tall cap. (and an exegarated one, which fits in as a joke)

[Faltout]

OK, I've ran some tests here that do show that there are frames being dropped in these locations (I just don't notice mine as much because I run mine at a lower resolution and the GPU doesn't have to work as hard so it maintains most of the frames easily enough).

Interesting, both of you who are noticing severe drops appear to be using ultra high resolutions and frequencies. And I originally thought that might have been a contributing factor to the issues experienced. But, the issue is not exclusive to ultra high resolutions or frequencies either I discovered.

I dropped the resolution on one of my rigs down to 800x600, all settings turned off or down to lowest setting. And it too can hit 100% core usage - but only rarely (just like normal for my rigs), but, of relevance to the matter, is that it also has frame drops in the same areas that you both have described and that I have used for testing. (I used the thin strip of road behind Elminster and in front of the bank in Eveningstar; is has shadows, trees and npcs, and overlooks distant areas in the horizon. I run from East to West and back again. The areas where the frames drop are identical on any resolution.)

Assuming it was a CPU single process issue limiting it to the lower frames (or reducing it from a higher average) and not something else, the super low resolution should have kept the frames consistent throughout compared to having everything on and it would cause the CPU to hit 100%. Yet this isn't the case from the testing I have conducted just now (it stalls even at a lower CPU core usage - nowhere near 100%). So I'm once again, not entirely sure that getting DDO to become multi-process capable is really going to improve things for those with advanced/heavy gaming rigs.

Of note, I can confirm that storage speeds and access times should not be a major factor in this, as I am using a Ramdisk (12-16GB/s) for DDO.
Having excess memory is not of direct impact (I've done previous tests before where cold boot times are improved after a second time if using slow storage from Windos caching the files before and posted on forum) as I have 32GB RAM available (64GB total, 32GB partitioned for Ramdisk).
Resolution of the game is not a factor; since 2560x1440 and 800x600 has the same hicups in the same areas.
CPU is not an issue; as I have ran into the frame drops at roughly the same locations, on both quad and hexacore CPUs.

Therefore, I surmise that the issue is something else inside DDO that is causing the frame drops you've experienced and described. Possibly unpacking of graphical assets or something else that causes the drop in frames. If that's the case, even if DDO becomes multi-core capable, if the Devs don't know what's causing that and don't implement something to take advantage of the extra core capability, it'll still have the same issue.

Anyone else have any ideas on this? I'm fairly certain the test points above covers the issue being described and eliminates the issue to the client being single core/thread being the cause of dropped frames.

J1NG
A frame drop without full CPU usage could happen if there is another limiting factor such as memory access. If the game checks the RAM too often and doesn't use the much faster cache, then that would lead to the CPU stalling waiting for data from the slow memory. As for higher resolutions, the CPU becomes the limiting factor and the frame drop is more noticeable. Having multiple threads may or may not help depending on the data dependencies. It could very well be that the data don't need to be prossesed in a serial manner. So when a thread stops to wait for the memory, another can continue its unrelated work.

However, making the game multi-threaded allows you to upgrade the game in general. It's not free though. Making a program multi-threaded is not a trivial thing and it basically means rewriting the entire codebase depending on the level of parallelism you adopt. And it will never happen in DDO.

[J1NG]

A frame drop without full CPU usage could happen if there is another limiting factor such as memory access.

Agreed. This was what my testing suggested.


If the game checks the RAM too often and doesn't use the much faster cache, then that would lead to the CPU stalling waiting for data from the slow memory.

Possible. My Ramdisk setup is still slightly ahead in terms of more modern high end raid m.2/nvme stuff, and even that doesn't really help (even with the pagefile on it), however there I will note that I don't appear to have as severe a drop as others have noticed.


As for higher resolutions, the CPU becomes the limiting factor and the frame drop is more noticeable. Having multiple threads may or may not help depending on the data dependencies. It could very well be that the data don't need to be prossesed in a serial manner. So when a thread stops to wait for the memory, another can continue its unrelated work.

However, making the game multi-threaded allows you to upgrade the game in general. It's not free though. Making a program multi-threaded is not a trivial thing and it basically means rewriting the entire codebase depending on the level of parallelism you adopt. And it will never happen in DDO.

That was my thoughts too after testing. I may jump to a lower end rig that still has a Hard Drive and a Pagefile on it and see if that suffers as bad. Try and narrow down whether it's DDO accessing stuff anew, or whether it's something purely on the Dev end that needs to be done in order to even see any real improvement.

J1NG