The Weekly Development Activities

[Beherit_Baphomar]

Yup, things like that will still show up here and there. Things we can answer, we will. This is NOT a wall of silence coming down - we just have to change the way and rate at which information is released!

-Meghan

This is not a wall of silence....

I am 100% sure anything we are told will come only after days and days of asking in various threads.

Another day at the office I suppose...

Not much else is expected.

Back to the game.

[Hendrik]

14 servers -> 5 servers. Doom has come and gone. What's left is highly loyal.

Even if everyone who read the WDA left today the server pops would hardly notice.

Mod8 had better be GH size though or I do see further doom down the line as our 6 month discount subs start to reach expiration.

And next week there will be something else claiming to be the Doom of DDO.



I do agree, what we have here in DDO are HIGHLY loyal not only to DDO itself, but to the whole genre.

The big merge, slot bugs aside, was/is a boon to DDO, not it's Doom.

[Spell]

(looks around nervously)
... psst... can I buy some drugs from your marketing department.....

[Tanka]

Pretty sure this point has been made by now, but I'm lazy and don't want to read the thread before saying it anyway:

Were there no WDAs for M7, we would still have the various Paladin Auras costing 2x what they cost now. 2/4/6/8 for a +1/2/3/4 bonus to AC wasn't acceptable then, and it was changed thanks to many posters giving feedback as to why it wasn't acceptable.

So now we have to sit through changes that will suddenly hit us, and test everything so thoroughly on Risia (where most content/changes are set in stone as-is) that we may as well still be Beta testing the game.

I'm disappointed about the loss of the WDA, to say the least.

You want better marketing possibilities? Handing out exclusive content to MMO websites isn't going to help. All that's gonna do is get the DDO haters to rile up because the game isn't faithful to PnP and get the WoW players riled up because it isn't another article on WoW.

Sorry, but this idea is just plain bad.

[Asirin]

It's ok by me I like surprises.Mebbe lack of information about any new Mod coming out will cease the endless nitpicking about the specifics...it was starting to get annoying.

[fefnir3284]

4th edition revamp is coming then, huh?

L-A-M-E!

ding ding ding, I think you are correct. that would be my only guess as to why. tis a sad day. Ive been playing dnd for 23 years, I loved 3.0 and 3.5 best, cause I like multi-class rp characters, but from what is leaked, I do not like, nor will I be getting, dnd 4.0.

but well see...

[TechNoFear]

The WDA contained much more than new content...

The WDA provided info on bugs that the Devs had acknowledged and fixed (and therefor we did not have to keep reporting them).
The WDA provided info on small features added ie Barkeepers now repairing (and therefore we did not have to keep asking for them).

This info will be missed.

I still don't understand the reasoning behind 'Let the paying customers find out last, and through some external site clogged with ads for other games.' But I just design/create the systems and ensure the end users are happy, I do not not sell them to management, so what do I know?

The WDA allowed us input/feedback on upcomming features, without the WDA DDO feels less of 'our' game and more of a service I pay for.....

Damm those marketing droids from Sector G!

[Soldarm]

lmao..so turbine just fired their remaining PR person..lol..the cut backs just keep on comming..get the hint everyone??

[ArkoHighStar]

lmao..so turbine just fired their remaining PR person..lol..the cut backs just keep on comming..get the hint everyone??

noody was fired, Quarion left for another opportunity. The loss of the WDA hurts, as I enjoyed every Monday, and the new discussion it usually entailed, but in reality it was unusual for them to give us so much info like they did. You look at LOTRO and they have none of this, players get all their info from articles and interviews etc from 3rd party sites, just like every other game. Now mormally I would beat Turbine over the head with the LOTRO club screaming favouritism, but now they are doing what they do for LOTRo for DDO and I find it hard to complain(unless they screw it up). Sure we won't have weekly updates, but honestly after a while the WDA became stagnant until one of two big features were released, like once a month which is how often we will see new articles on DDO I hope

[Borror0]

Sure we won't have weekly updates, but honestly after a while the WDA became stagnant until one of two big features were released, like once a month which is how often we will see new articles on DDO I hope

I have been alright with a bimonthly thing, that would still be better than nothing.

[Exgirlfriend]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. As I said in the OP, we knew this would be unpopular with some of you. We appreciate the feedback both from those who have expressed their disappointment as well as those who remain (albeit cautiously) optimistic. We'll do our best to ensure that you'll know what you can look forward to in each module; and in many ways, you'll get a more complete picture of it than trying to piece it together from the WDAs! For the record, I've read each and every post in the thread (although I admit skipping over the 4.0 branch of it) and will continue to follow it, as will the rest of the team.

-Meghan

the wda is one of the reasons i like DDO. Please do not give the WDA away to someplace like Stratics. As a 10 year vet of UO i can tell you Stratics service SUCKS.

Over the years, Stratics mods have been banned countless times from the game for cheating & exploiting, also the mods have shown alot of favorism towards there own guilds, they say somethng smart then ban You for replying. They also charge you for there service or you get mad pop-ups and it takes forever to load and even if you do pay it still crashes, Right now the servers are being redone, they lost everthing and you even have to re regester.

The worst part is you dont really get to talk to the dev's, you have to talk thru stratics and they are 1000% carebear and remove anything that even comes close to a complaint.

Reading the WDA is great please do not remove it.

Thanks alot
Exgirlfriend

[tenga]

my take on it

-translation-
"we're not going to tell you whats going on, but rather sell the info to tentonhammer, get some publicity, and you can deal with them for any info you want"

[rawfocat]

I have mixed emotions about this change. I understand the need for the change based on Marketing. One thing I will miss is the routine of Monday and reading the WDA. Please try and soften the blow by posting a link to some content on a partner site. It will get you hits and help the WDA readership feel like they have some idea what is gong on. A Monday, check out this article would be great.

[Cordelia]

Wow. Ridiculous decision. The WDAs were the only redeeming quality of these forums. Spin it any way you please, ticking off your current clientèle, for whatever reason is never a smart move. Makes one wonder if there have been even more budget cutbacks...

Whatever. Please reconsider. I know the egos that be won't, but this is most certainly NOT good for the game.

[Kilgore61]

I hate to see the WDA go as well. It was by far my main reason for visiting the forums.

Hopefully this marketing ploy will work. More subscribers are crucial to increasing new content. The contraction of servers, while greatly needed, was not a good sign for the games health. The reduced subscription fees is the reason there are no longer monthly updates.

My take is that the same info will be available, but in 'exclusive' articles. If this press entices throngs to start playing DDO then great. Unfortunately, it will leave me and others less informed, as I/we have little time to read articles on line to gleam the tidbits of new info that was previously concisely presented.

Those who feel this will reduce negative posts will be proven wrong. The timing of unpopular changes will not effect their popularity.

[GeneralDiomedes]

You want better marketing possibilities? Handing out exclusive content to MMO websites isn't going to help.

now I've never worked as an mmo publicist, but what if some of the publications demanded that they drop it? What do you do then?

[Sertrynus]

Gotta say that this raises a concern or 2 about the future of things to come.

1. A concern that a number of already raised is that there will be no player feedback prior to release of content, an example of this is the Bulwark of Good IV AP cost which was reduced only after the player community heard about it in the WDA and expressed concerns.

2. Second is more of a query than a concern, does this lack of WDA actually mean that more content and more attention to bugs and imbalances in the game? Those that hang around Paladin forums would love to see some responses to player suggestions for the class.

The WDA was a great way for players (ie. the paying customer) to feel like they were important by getting info before other groups, but I guess we are just the customers.............

I do hope that the lack of the WDA will mean that things will get better, but i fear it won't.

Oh yeah and a State of the Game letter would be appreaciated, given that I vaguley remember that it was going to be done back in February

[Charlemagne2]

very disappointing.

As for increased marketing- yatayatayata

The WDA is one of the best tools for keeping in touch with the hardcore community.

I will miss my monday reading material.

[bandyman1]

Gotta say that this raises a concern or 2 about the future of things to come.

1. A concern that a number of already raised is that there will be no player feedback prior to release of content, an example of this is the Bulwark of Good IV AP cost which was reduced only after the player community heard about it in the WDA and expressed concerns.

2. Second is more of a query than a concern, does this lack of WDA actually mean that more content and more attention to bugs and imbalances in the game? Those that hang around Paladin forums would love to see some responses to player suggestions for the class.

The WDA was a great way for players (ie. the paying customer) to feel like they were important by getting info before other groups, but I guess we are just the customers.............

I do hope that the lack of the WDA will mean that things will get better, but i fear it won't.

Oh yeah and a State of the Game letter would be appreaciated, given that I vaguley remember that it was going to be done back in February

QFT.

As for the Bolded txt; Actually we were told that a State of the Gmae address was " being drafted as we speak ' by Q back in October of last year . Oh, along with these huge new forum improvments that were being designed for the specific purpose of facillatating faster and better communication between the Devs and the playerbase.

Here

Scorecard? FAIL

[winsom]

There have been a couple of really bad decision that have been tweaked in response to a community outrage stemming from info provided in the WDA and the game is BETTER for it; off the top of my head: 5th swing at +15 AB and death penalty tweaks.

There was going to be a Melee Alacrity feat which would speed up attack melee speed ! Isn't 3+ unbuffed attacks per second fast and unbalancing enough compared to how fast monsters attack us? Yes it is!

How about the discovery that the last attack in a melee chain has a substantially increased critical chance multiplier? The community spoke up and said these things are much too effective to be balanced in DDO environment.

Players had long complained that spell-damage was too insignificant relative to the inflated HPs of most DDO monsters.

Players asked for meta-magics to work better with Cure Wounds spells so we wouldn't get charged extra SPs to heal an ally just because that spell could had a Heightened Save IF..used against Undead.

Players spoke up about the lackluster damage output of ranged attackers and also how the Improved Precise Shot feat actually took away part of the attraction of the Precise Shot feat.

I could name more, but it seemed clear to me that Turbine WAS listening. What are they going to listen to the in the future if the information we receive is much less forthcoming and not timely enough for our feedback to be as useful? We players will not have much to comment on, under this new shroud of secrecy. At least that is my fear.

Not all of the above were necessarily from the WDAs but the WDAs have been the best source of communication we players have had to Turbine. It has been great to have community voice!

Turbine would listen and made changes, and then earn my dollar again after I revisit the Turbine Billing Page.