Happy Fourth Birthday, DDO!

[Fernando]

Hi Everyone-

It’s been a little while since I have been able to post, but I am pleased today to be able to spend a little time with you today commemorating an exciting milestone: DDO’s 4th Birthday! Just like you might do on your birthday, this seems a fitting time to reflect on what has come before and think on what the future holds for us as well. But like any four year old, first we really just want to focus on when’s the party and when do we get our presents?

DDO’s birthday is February 28th and today we are officially kicking off the party! We have a lot to celebrate this birthday so we are looking to make it a good one! We hope you have already been enjoying the first part of our birthday month festivities, The Risia Ice Games, and that you have had fun adding Frost effects to your weapons and hand wraps and crafting other fun winter items. Have you made it to the purple coin from the ski jump yet? Are you as glad as I am that consuming many cups of Ski Lift Hot Cocoa doesn’t seem to make your character gain weight? Here are 3 quick tips: don’t use feather fall, be sure to boost your movement speed and jump skill as much as you can, and don’t forget to do a lot of air steering. Good luck!

In honor of our birthday we are also bringing back the ever popular 20% Quest XP boost from February 26th through 28th and again from March 5th through the 7th. Remember that this XP bonus stacks with other XP boost benefits. Also True Reincarnation is available again as of today, so it will be a great time for everyone to go out there and rack up a ton of XP!

Finally with today’s patch we are introducing a new mini-game: The Traveler’s Scavenger Hunt, named after The Traveler, Eberron’s mischievous deity known as the “Giver of Gifts”. You can read the full guide by clicking here, but this is how it works: All player characters created before the 18th will receive a number of tickets called Tokens of the Traveler (depending on account type) and a single Blessing of the Traveler item as well. The Tokens let you run the scavenger hunt for a basic prize, but the Blessing is required to claim a grand prize. Talk to an NPC named Taj in the Marketplace, give him a Token and you’ll begin a timed run to collect as many magic eggs as you can.

Like with so many things in life, all it takes is a little speed (haste, expeditious retreat, striding, etc.), maybe a Jump boost and a little practice and you should do fine! As you complete a run, you will earn one of five different Auras – the more eggs you find the more powerful your Aura. Upon returning to Taj he will give you a chance to win a treasure item appropriate to your level. The better you did, the better your potential rewards. Also if you achieve Auras 3, 4 or 5 (look for the Roman numeral in the icon), you will have the option to turn in a Blessing to receive a special grand prize! Try to learn a path that lets you maximize your Aura before you turn in your Blessing to maximize your rewards!

So what can you win with a Blessing? Some really cool and valuable stuff! Like for example a brand new item – the summoned repair shop – will initially be available exclusively as a Blessing reward. Other prizes include healing items, XP boosts, resurrection cakes and Twigs! Yes, that’s right, Twigs. If you aren’t sure what to do with these, I suggest you play the Risia Ice Games or just take them to the auction house where they are in high demand before the Ice Games are done. (Though lower the buyout prices a bit will ya? The costs are getting out of hand for just a twig!) And speaking of riches at the auction house, as a special grand prize available only during our birthday celebration, the Festival of the Traveler will initially be configured to drop UNBOUND +3 Lesser hearts of Wood when you redeem a Blessing of the Traveler after a good hunt! Go get them! And may the Traveler smile on you!

I also mentioned something about reflecting on the past and thinking on the future. To that end, I will plan to come back to post again in the coming weeks (after recovering from all of the festivities) to provide a “State of the Game” post for you. Please post a few questions or topics you want me to cover in that message, and I will do my best to address as many as I can.

In closing, I just want to say a big thank you to our whole player community for helping to make DDO such a success in 2009 and for getting 2010 off to such a great start! Few MMO’s get to celebrate a fourth birthday, let alone at a time when investment in the game is growing and we have thousands of new players joining the community every day.

Happy Birthday, DDO! Here’s to many more great years in Eberron!

-Fernando.

[Sirea]

Whoa, Fernando isn't a myth. I thought you were out partying with Elvis and Bigfoot on a flying saucer in the Bermuda Triangle.

[kingfisher]

oooooooo nando!

[Samadhi]

So what - those of us that have been waiting for 6 mos. to get lssr +3's can now do so only through these games? Straw that broke the camels back.

[Kale_Hagan]

Ok, so is there currently (or will there ever) a spot on the dev "to do" list that includes customization of your character's appearance, i.e. armor, helms, etc?

There's a whole army of DT wearing people out there. It gets a little boring.

I know that there are a lot of people wondering about this.

[Sir_Chonas]

I vote we don't hassle the person who holds the game by the heartstrings in his 1st post in months. . .

@ Mr. Paiz: Thank you for the lovely event. I realize you didn't have to get us anything, it's thoughtful that you did.

[Captain_Wizbang]

Thank you so much for explaining in detail the new activity!
Glad to see that you are emerging from the lack of sleep time as a parent!
How is the little halfling anyways?

[Gol]

My Questions:

1) Will long time players (think back to when the level cap was 10 and 12) receive a one-time free Greater Reincarnation gem? Many changes you have made to the game over the past 4 years have rendered well planned and thought-out characters borderline useless now, and we're not really interested in rerolling them via TR. However, the price of the hearts in the store is just plain prohibitive currently.

2) Where are the rest of the Prestige Enhancements that we were teased with in 2008? Clerics, Favored Souls, and Sorcerers still have NONE, and the current Wizard PrE is completely useless.

3) Any plans to introduce new races? Kate mentioned that these were being worked on for a first-half of 2009 release, but that obviously didn't happen. A preview as to "what's in the pipe" for races would be great.

4) Any plans for new classes? And please don't say Warlock, as has been rumored. How about Druid, which again, Kate mentioned you guys were working on for a late 2009 release? How about Articifer?

5) What is being done about the apparent inadequacy of QA? Many longstanding bugs are ignored. Features that don't work are just written off and never addressed. Bug reports on Lamannia are ignored and most bugs on Lamannia get to live servers. What's the point of filing bug reports if they're only ever going to be ignored?

As I think of more, I'll edit them in.

[totmacher]

thanks for the birthday festivities. nat gann has a birthday too.

free nat gann!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sirea]

I vote we don't hassle the person who holds the game by the heartstrings in his 1st post in months. . .

@ Mr. Paiz: Thank you for the lovely event. I realize you didn't have to get us anything, it's thoughtful that you did.

Lighthearted fun-poking comment =/= hassling (at least on my part)

Trust me, Fernando's heard a lot worse than what's likely to be said in this thread.

[flynnjsw]

Lighthearted fun-poking comment =/= hassling (at least on my part)

Trust me, Fernando's heard a lot worse than what's likely to be said in this thread.

I would imagine that they were refering to not so light hearted posts as the one quoted below.

So what - those of us that have been waiting for 6 mos. to get lssr +3's can now do so only through these games? Straw that broke the camels back.

[xtchizobr]

sincerely, thank you.

[KKDragonLord]

I also mentioned something about reflecting on the past and thinking on the future. To that end, I will plan to come back to post again in the coming weeks (after recovering from all of the festivities) to provide a “State of the Game” post for you. Please post a few questions or topics you want me to cover in that message, and I will do my best to address as many as I can.

-Fernando.

Hey guys!
We have been asking for an opportunity to ask questions and get a new state of the game, how about we post them while we have the chance?

My questions:

Are there any plans to add more monsters and replace over used ones sometime in the future?

Are we getting Druids this year? Will half-orcs or shifters be included in the package?

Are there any plans to add more cosmetic changes to the game, such as adding visible cloaks or allowing visual customizations?

Are you guys considering adding persistent minigames to DDO such as D&D miniature games or card games?

Is ranged combat going to be fixed for all races and most classes someday?

Will clerics get domains someday?

Wouldn't it be nice to have a weekly "Ask a Dev" thread to appease the hunger of the community in these new "fast updates" times?

Are there plans to add PvP to DDO in the future? Is that the underlying reason for the plans to nerf CC?

Will we ever get all the core classes, including psionics, and the core races?

Will Eberron Unlimited expand to other continents of Eberron?

Is the rumored new Turbine Console MMO going to be D&D related?

Are there plans to update DDO to nextgen graphic engines?

[RobertVesco]

Hi and thanks

What are the problems with coding a search feature into the Auction House? I think it's the one thing everyone wants.

[Mockduck]

All I can say is I'm glad I posted my twigs on the Auction House BEFORE the Festival of the Traveler hit!

Very nice, thanks for putting this together.

[Strakeln]

Fernando, I'm most interested in talking about the QA/bugfixing process for DDO. For example, recently Mournlands has started accepting new applicants to the server... however, given the lack of attention that is given to known or reported problems, I have to wonder what exactly you expect to gain from additional bug reports that you won't have time to address.

For example, there are many longstanding bugs that many have completely given up hope of ever seeing fixed. Barbarians and potion funnels, for example. Mass heal affecting a max of six people. DPS lag. Barb rage triggering bug. ToD set bonus bugs. The list of known issues that doesn't ever seem to shed many issues.

[dana41967]

How come i cant log in to play yet the way every one is talking the update is done and is playing the birthday festivities already but i cant even log in????? so is the game ready to play now or not yet im getting frustrated with this!!!!

[Sirea]

I would imagine that they were refering to not so light hearted posts as the one quoted below.

And like I said, some people weren't around for the Great Content Drought of 2008-2009, or for some of the early threads concerning Dungeon Alert and the other huge, recent changes to the game, and didn't see some of the utterly vilifying comments towards Fernando and the rest of the DDO Team during that time.

[redgod]

clouds part voice from above says im the fernando heres free stuff i like it

[Ithrani]

And like I said, some people weren't around for the Great Content Drought of 2008-2009, or for some of the early threads concerning Dungeon Alert and the other huge, recent changes to the game, and didn't see some of the utterly vilifying comments towards Fernando and the rest of the DDO Team during that time.

And most of it was and still is deserved, these games are a waste of development time.