DDOcast Episode 158 (3-5-10)

[Mockduck]

Hi everyone! Episode 158 of DDOcast is now ready to go. Here'a a LINK to the episode - just left-click to play, right-click and 'save as' to download as an mp3.

This week's show features the 11th Edition of Ask the Devs, a listener-submitted Q-and-A session with some of the fine folks who make DDO! Rowanheal and Samius join me this week for an experimental test of a live streamed show as well. Babale talks area of effect spells in "Surviving DDO!" Music provided by a chorus of warforged, courtesy of Envinyatar.

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DDOcast Episode 158 (3-5-10)

:30 Intro and music by Envinyatar
3:05 Ask the Devs 11
30:50 ATD post-chat w/group
35:18 Maintenance
35:33 Cedwin's awesome work!
39:30 DDO Store stuff and Greater Reincarnation
47:00 Scavenger Hunt/Ice Games
49:20 Lawsuit update
52:30 Europe Update!
53:55 Mournlands update
55:11 Team Turbine
56:14 Surviving DDO - Area of Effect
1:03:10 Stacking Planner
1:03:50 Featured Player - Jaggie!
1:04:30 Cocktail Hour
1:05:55 Top five sources of drama while gaming in DDO

END

Total Time: 1:27:06

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LINK referenced in Ask the Devs chat re:support.

LINK to Cedwin's MyDDOLite. LINK to Server web site widget. LINK to Sidebar server widget.

LINK to server RSS feed. LINK to DDO Forums Search provider.


LINK to DDO Store Release Notes, reference for Greater Reincarnation.

LINK to new DDO Store items.


LINK to the latest filing in the Turbine vs. Atari lawsuit.

LINK to info on Team Turbine's work to raise money in a walk for a local hunger cause.

LINK to Bruntash's Stacking Planner.

LINK to the 5th Eberron Community Chronicle.


LINK to the latest Featured Player on My.DDO.com - Jaggie!


LINK to Episode 3 of the DDO Cocktail Hour. LINK to the 15th Yak Cast.

(pic is one of Samius' characters)

Jerry

[ArkoHighStar]

Thanks again Jerry, great job as always

listening now

[Cedwin]

lol, that intro was AWESOME. Listening now.

[Cedwin]

Thanks for the plugs Jerry.

"Who knows what the, the tech used to do this, who knows what creative community folks might be able to do with this in the future."

I've posted the full source code to the Sidebar Gadget if anyone wants to take a look at how I'm connecting to the serverinfo pages, or simply how to make a Sidebar Gadget.

[techwench]

Holy........

Did I hear that right? AH text search...in the works...as early as THIS YEAR???? *faint*

[ArkoHighStar]

Holy........

Did I hear that right? AH text search...in the works...as early as THIS YEAR???? *faint*

yes it sounds like the back end is done, they just have to redo the GUI

[chubbs99]

I really hope that they use the WoW AH as inspiration for the direction they take it. That AH system was so easy to use, you could find whatever you were looking for without any effort at all.

They said they weren't sure how they would have it set up, be it a global search across all categories, or just a category search which would speed things up, but if you were looking for a vorpal you could still have to look through all the weapons, just 1 page of each now rather then God knows how many. Which is still a drastic improvement.

What would be really nice though is that it would be a seach of the category selected; ie. 'Weapons' will search all weapons, where as selecting 'Simple' Will give results of any simple weapon matching your keywords. If no category is selected then make it global.

Either way though, It is great news that they are finally working on it and Jerry is still an Evil tease for what he did on the cocktail hour!

[Craigers07]

I really hope that they use the WoW AH as inspiration for the direction they take it. That AH system was so easy to use, you could find whatever you were looking for without any effort at all.

I like the WoW AH too and hopefully they will consider something similar to it.

Great show Jerry and I like the intro.

[Trillea]

As for the sun flasks, I think they come in most handy in the Tomb 3 quest with all the gelatinous cubes. They do as much if not more damage to the cubes/oozes as the water bottles from the fountains. They make the quest MUCH more palatable!

[Gratch]

You forgot to ask the devs about half orcs. What? Do I have to mail that question in each time? The searchable AH someday was good news.

As for Rowanheal's thoughts on what we should hope to see from Fernando.

(warning... long post that got longer the longer I thought about it... please excuse or ignore).

Beyond 20. There's already 15 threads about how D&D beyond 20 epic rules have always been a bit "wonky". This will leave Turbine in a number of ticked off camps regardless of how they implement the epic "guidelines" (because they are moreso guidelines then well tested rules).

As a longtime addicted player, I'm still having fun with the epic content that keeps rolling out. I've also been taken by the character grind of TR'ing.... though TR'ing is making a lot of quests too repetitive (especially given the XP's you need on TR2+'s).

So I don't know about 20+... is it needed anytime soon? Is there a good enough structure from 1-20 to build on going up?

I figure there are sort of two largest camps in DDO. There's the newbs + casuals that like the content, like things to get rehashed to be less confusing, less frustrating, but hopefully still fun. Then there's the long time hardcore players who TR and epic grind and raid grind and have sort of established guilds that keep repetitive content "interesting via the social dynamic friends add".

I don't know where longtime but casual players end up in this mix. If they did add L21-22 content... how do they scale it compared with EPIC. For casual players it could be a second Amrath Frustration. I guess there is some more room to scale due to the casual to elite setting. But in theory, everything over 20 is by definition EPIC. Shrug.

Currently, before even talking about L21+... I'd prefer to see the schedule or implementation of ALL the PRE's to come out and to get "balanced" and I'd like to see Half-Orcs and Druids and probably the continuation of EPIC'ing current raid areas. You also know they're gonna keep adding content, content, content at other levels to keep things fresh both for newer players as well as TR'ing vets.

All of this said, control of this game's direction now appears to be in the hands of what keeps people here and more importantly buying from the DDO Store. (not greater reinc tokens I'm hoping... f'ing overpriced).

[Mockduck]

I've asked about half orcs a few times in the past during ATD tapings, I don't want the time to be a series of "status updates" on the things most often brought up by players that Turbine is just not saying anything about right now. Our time is better spent getting to other questions, IMO. So, submitting it over and over won't help. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I just don't see the point of asking over and over again for a class that Turbine is unwilling to discuss the future of. Hopefully we'll get word on half orcs, druids, gnomes, prestige enhancements, future level plans and the host of other things that would quickly fill up the question list time after time - I'm sure it'll be when Turbine's ready to market it.

[Gratch]

I'm not asking you to approach it in all seriousness. I'm asking you to approach it comicalness. You're the half-orc inquisition with a unwavering dedication to the release of half-orcs pope.

I'm not asking SNL type sketch repetitition (repetition until it's just bad). I was thinking more Ren&Stimpy repetition (repetition unitl it hurts). Totally different.

Just ask again and again and again and again! Then twice more. Then once in a high-pitched voice... then again crying... thrice with feeling... possibly operatically.

Then at the end of your performance Glin will croak out something like "update 6... slated for update... 6. Gads man, pull yourself together already."


Plus... you had asked the searchable marketplace question before... and got much better result this time. Repetition works. I wasn't promised gnomes and level 21+ was specifically noted as HARD at one point. I was specifically promised half-orcs 2 years ago and I mean to hit that question with a riding crop at every available opportunity.