This game would be perfect except for 2 Huge Flaws

[FeonixFireforge]

The hireling system really sucks. My hireling just stops following me out of the blue for no apparent reason. Is it so that turbine can get more money out of their customers? That would be a very bad way of keeping a customer base if you ask me. I think the come button should not wait 10 seconds while you die for your hireling that should have kept up in the first place first tries a futile attempt to get to your position.

For cleric hirelings it is plain stupid to have the hireling heal you over and over when you have a curse that prevents healing. Not even the dumbest players would do that. This means that it gives a perception that the hireling that should have a reasonable intelligence is actually dumber than dirt. Same thing for traps and fire walls. I can understand a hireling running through such things after enemies but to just stand there and wait 10 minutes to die?!?!?!?!?

Very easy code
If the hireling is standing in area effect without live player
then move.

It kind of sucks being a Computer Systems Software Engineer and seeing such stupid things going on. To add to my insult I have a Videogame and Simulation Degree from DeVry. This means the dumb stuff looks even worse with the knowledge I have of engines and such.

One thing that absolutely needs to be done with the hireling system is AI adjustments for the player. Like one would be to heal all party members not just the person hiring the hireling. You should be able to tell the hireling to stop using SP until told different. Another good one is to tell the hireling to run in circles to avoid damage until help arrives.

Another huge problem that I have seen that some of my friends I got playing the game quit for is the stupid chat window. Here are some changes that should have been in the first version.

Tells should have the ability to be written in any chosen open window. General, guild, party...

It is pretty embarrassing for a person to tell someone something in the party when they meant it for just a specific person and not the entire party. The same goes for those that accidentally post to the general tab when the meant to post to the Party tab but just happen to be in the general tab to do a tell.

Allow the player to separate the windows and fully customize the chat with a button found on the chat window.

Enough for me right now.

[AyumiAmakusa]

Allow the player to separate the windows and fully customize the chat with a button found on the chat window.

Enough for me right now.

You can do that already. Drag them to separate them. Duh. Not to mention they're ALREADY fully customisable.

[Doomcrew]

Tells can be sent from any chat window, just /t (name),
and I eagerly await the game you put out.


Cheers

[Akrilus]

Tells can be sent from any chat window, just /t (name),
and I eagerly await the game you put out.


Cheers

you may also need to adjust what incomming messages you recieve in each of the windows by, right?, clicking on the window name and checking/unchecking the appropriate ''option''

[FeonixFireforge]

Thanks, did not know that bout the chat windows. =-P That will aloow me to have a few less irritating moments and I might even get some of my freinds to come back.

Thanks again.

[DevilButcher]

Wow that was a pretty good choice for your FIRST POST, Oh and Welcome -_-

Who really uses hirelings other than a back up cleric? we all know there bad and are the butt of our jokes

[FeonixFireforge]

LOL,

Yah was a bit annoyed. My "back up" Cleric was being stupid and because of the stupidity I wiped twice in an area I should not have wiped.

[Blackfire1]

"Videogame and Simulation Degree from DeVry"
>.>
um...ok.... A Videogame degree from DeVry is like a Culinary Degree from Jack in the Box.
Art Institute, ITT, MIT, Oxford, UCLA, UNLV, Phoenix College all have better Design programs. Coding is coding is coding. You can learn that anywhere.
Computer Systems Software Engineer, thats nice. Send Turbine you resume and stop complaining.

Take most high end MMO's. Even free to plays, All have better features then this game. But they don't have the soul.
Everything you mentioned in your post have ALL been mentioned before over 59+ times.
Its on their list. Along with the Seventy-eight other things you didn't mention.

Thank you for your opinion.
Working as intended. :P

Do like a good beta tester and make a list, compare it to the "known issue" list, then email the difference to turbine. Along with your resume. I know they are hiring. And I want you to work on this game.

[FeonixFireforge]

Thanks a lot! =-S I worked hard for my degree. I also got a huge insight into how things work inside videogames. They did not really teach to much code they expected you to know how to code going into the degree. A lot did not and really struggled. I personally have been coding for over 23 years and have been professionally coding for 11.

I received hands on experience with several game engines which consisted of both 2D and 3D. I did a lot of flash work, modified core code to an MMO engine and client side code as well. Worked through the build of a full minimalistic 3D engine. For the experience and the knowledge I personally got I would rate DeVry up there with some of the bigger named schools.

Statistics show that most of richest people never went to an upper league school anyway. It is not necessarily where you go to school that matters anyway. It is your determination to excel that really matters and the friends you make.

I enjoy D&D and have since I was a kid. I love this game but only have those few issues personally. Also I would love to work at Turbine and help out on the game. Only a couple of issues with that. I am currently serving the US Air Force in South Korea. When I get out soon I will join my family in Southern California in Irvine. Other side of the country and just conveniently near Blizzard.

In the middle of my Master Project Management Masters degree with an emphasis in Software Project management. The school will also set me up with my PNP cert following graduation which I will then qualify for.

Do not know if I will work in the videogame industry but I did learn a lot and enjoyed the journey. Please don't refer to anyone’s efforts for a degree as something they could have gotten at a fast-food place. Totally not cool.

[Dunfalach]

Who really uses hirelings other than a back up cleric? we all know there bad and are the butt of our jokes

I use them periodically. I often use them in slayer zones in particular if there's not a party about. When first running a new character, I will almost always have Byron along in Korthos Island slayers. Actually, if running a wizard or similar squishy, I've been known to bring Byron along into a party doing island quests if the party isn't full. I always ask first if the party leader is okay with it, but frankly I trust Byron to stick around and see I don't get into trouble better than I do other players on Korthos. It's early game, and the melee types are still reveling in the ability to smack everything in sight with a big sword. This is not a bad thing in itself, but it does result in them sometimes spreading out in pursuit of mobs and leaving the squishy open for trouble. :> (also why I'm usually the only person in the party remotely near the bard by the time his song ends) This is especially so for Misery's Peak, where parties tend to spread out and split up on the ramps in the big cavern, and on the ice stairways to the two switches later on. Having Byron keep those sneaky ice spiders off my back is very valuable to me.

I concur with their problems, of course. They need some better AI to function at least a little more on the level of competence of the enemy NPCs. And some additional levels of control on their quickbar would be nice. Also, banning grease as a hireling spell would be nice; I refuse to knowingly take a grease wizard hireling as they inevitably cast it into the melee. But if you know their limitations, they really do have their uses.

[basketaske]

if hirelings were perfect, lots of people would never group. You're the leader, take care of your straggling hireling(s). Lastly, hirelings bought from a vendor are perfectly fine unless you absolutely need 2 or more or to have the option to summon them anywhere in the quest.

[AyumiAmakusa]

if hirelings were perfect, lots of people would never group. You're the leader, take care of your straggling hireling(s). Lastly, hirelings bought from a vendor are perfectly fine unless you absolutely need 2 or more or to have the option to summon them anywhere in the quest.

What hirelings are good for:

1) Mana Storage - Use them for their DVs.
2) Heals - Use them for cheap healing. They even use pots!!
3) Bait - Use them to attract aggro while you beat the life out of your enemies.
4) Placeholders - Use them to pull levers or stand in a certain spot (to activate a pressure plate).
5) Buff Bots - Haste/blur/etc. You know which buffs are good.
6) Emergency - If you die, use your hireling to retrieve your soulstone! Note: They may also die.
7) DPS - If you trust them enough. Generally, the Sorc/Wiz hirelings are not too bad.

[Azaron_Nightblade]

I always figured it was a pathfinding issue? Usually when a hireling cleric "stops" following and you run back to scold him/her they can be found running back and forth trying to (unsuccessfully!) navigate their way around something stupid.
My advice would be to keep an eye on them, and if you do lose track and find yourself in a tough battle... retreat! :P
Not that the latter's always an option with those pesky gates suddenly locking behind you while the room fills up with nasties.

[Dunfalach]

What hirelings are good for:
6) Emergency - If you die, use your hireling to retrieve your soulstone! Note: They may also die.

I never thought about having a hireling snag your soulstone. That's brilliant!

[Dunfalach]

Not that the latter's always an option with those pesky gates suddenly locking behind you while the room fills up with nasties.

I find the teleport usually works in locked rooms, provided you have time to click it in the fight. I've teleported Byron into the room with me many times on the two Korthos quests with locking rooms (Stopping the Sauhagin and Necromancer's Doom).

[woundweaver]

so, hirelings and chat windows are what is keeping this game from being perfect??
what game have i been playing? unless i missed something, theres a lot more wrong than just that

perfection is all your spells working correctly
perfection is not having to drink a distillate everytime i log on a healer to play
perfection is.....nvm

this game isnt

[MrWizard]

all technical games can be frustrating, especially at first.

I tried WoW and was pretty annoyed at how their mouse buttons were backwards..hated it. Still do.


it takes time and you must realize this is a game. a coded game. Their is no known way to code everything perfectly and to have everything for everyone.

just be careful what you type..we have all done it..

[Yazston_the_Invoker]

Please don't refer to anyone’s efforts for a degree as something they could have gotten at a fast-food place. Totally not cool.

In that case, please don't infer that the devs are idiots because you think you can code a running, 4-year old MMO better than the people that have been working on it full time, all without having access to the code itself. Totally not cool. That attitude reeks of ignorance, since having the kind of experience you refer to, should have taught you that ANY program, especially one that has been going for over 4 years with multiple coders can have amazing amounts of bugs and be overly complex in areas that you would think are simple.

Seriously, feel free to move to MA, and apply for a job with them if you think your advanced Project Management degree from DeVry *chuckle* gives you THAT much more expertise and experience than those who have been working on the game for years. My personal guess is that the AI coding IS a little cloogy and difficult to work with, otherwise, such a simple task would have already been taken care of so that they do not constantly have threads like this.

That being said, I actually have had some good luck with the hirelings...at least at low level. For the longest time, the only reason I ever used a hireling was to hit a switch when I'm soloing, but now that I have tried them in a few places, I find that they are great for saving me a few SP on my wizzie, or for taking some aggro here and there, or even for healing when it comes to it. Just ran a quest last night with my wife, and we got a cleric hireling. That cleric healed both of us just fine, as long as we stayed within range of her heals...kinda how alot of PuG clerics do.

Oh, and I have been in PuGs with healers who insist on spamming heals through curses, even after I ask them to stop until I can hit my RC pot. Being human does not exempt healers from being morons.

[systemstate]

Yet another person assuming they know anything at all about systems and code that comprise DDO.

Look, I totally understand your frustration, but seriously. Let's not pretend that you know what it takes to fix a problem on a system we have zero back-end visibility of.

By saying that it's an "easy" fix, are you suggesting that Turbine staff is either too lazy or too inept to fix the problem?

At least you didn't stoop to posting some random piece of code like others have done.

[Memnir]

Hirelings works great for their intended purpose - to reset instances fast and easy.