Happy 5th Birthday DDO!

[KreepyKritter]

Dear DDO...

WHY MUST YOU TEASE ME SO!!

I hunger for news on Druids and Character Levels 20+...

Now I must go cry in a corner.

[kyoshibu]

I belive such an explendid update deserves a fitting event.

For once, i would like to see a Bardic PVP challenge. A spot where a bard can show all his musical glory and expertise in dodging angry crowds (or being a target).

I wonder why we can't play instruments manually like lotro's musician hobby? (Where we can even build or songs....or could....long time since i last played it)

That would be a nice detail to add to the game.

[Hambo]

Actually would like the player vs player area ramped up a bit. Maybe get some xp based on the lvl of player you beat. Add some daily leader boards and maybe world rankings. Different areas based on lvl. That would be pretty cool.

/not signed.

No awards for PvP, unless they allow all characters, casters included, to use all of their abilities; i.e. no disabled "can't cast that in a public instance", and make stealthed rogues truely invisible for PvP.

[RATRACE931]

Ahem..... Finish PRE's please!

[Janisis]

Will Kobolds be a player race anytime soon?

[MrkGrismer]

Hello DDO Team!

The "new content system" mentioned in the letter (and appearing now inside the event) seems to be referring to the expected revamp to our current Epic System, which is most thrilling to know!

I suspect the 'new content system' is a series of 'skirmish' quests that will work in much the same way as the Crystal Cove quest. With a sliding difficulty scale of 1-25.

[Girlbrush]

Happy 5th Birthday, DDO! I enjoyed your event and look forward to the updates you have in store for us.

[Thvari]

I would like a time line for PrE lines. I would also like if some thought could be put in to revamping the AC system to make it worth while all the way through. Also perhaps some cleaning of animations for the new races.

[Dark_Helmet]

/not signed.

No awards for PvP, unless they allow all characters, casters included, to use all of their abilities; i.e. no disabled "can't cast that in a public instance", and make stealthed rogues truely invisible for PvP.

I don't like PvP in the DDO world. People will want the classes "balanced" to make PvP fair. They already changed spells to accommodate the PvP people which punished those who quested (which, along with role playing, is the heart of D&D). There are so many games that do PvP, but don't have good questing and role playing based on D&D. Pleae don't ruin this game with more PvP.

If they do PvP, they should make another world and muck with the casting there and leave us questers and role players alone. Maybe call it champions online or something.

Oh yeah, They also tried a leaderboard and it failed.

Back on Topic:
Happy Birthday... been playing for 5 years, got the hat (not the shirt). How about sprucing up the fountain with all the founder names and guilds (to thank those who supported from the start).

[Crazyfruit]

Happy birthday DDO. I've had a lot of fun in this game. One of the best I've ever played. Here's to 5 more yaarrrs.

I do really wish you guys had that XP bonus running at a different time though hehe. Looking forward to whatever you guys are showing off at PAX, almost all the new stuff last year has been fantastic.

You get a taste of things to come in our Birthday event if you know where to look

Does this have anything to do with the Drunken Bugbear Sorcerer in the cove?

Re: State of the Game, I'd like to see challenges for high level characters talked about. The current "Mass Hold Everything" epics aren't exactly exciting. Maybe something about new uses for platinum too after what's happened.

[ArkoHighStar]

Happy birthday DDO. I've had a lot of fun in this game. One of the best I've ever played. Here's to 5 more yaarrrs.

I do really wish you guys had that XP bonus running at a different time though hehe. Looking forward to whatever you guys are showing off at PAX, almost all the new stuff last year has been fantastic.



Does this have anything to do with the Drunken Bugbear Sorcerer in the cove?

Re: State of the Game, I'd like to see challenges for high level characters talked about. The current "Mass Hold Everything" epics aren't exactly exciting. Maybe something about new uses for platinum too after what's happened.

I think he was referring to this which comes right after

We are working an ambitious new crafting system for the game that we will work on throughout the year which is based in part on the barter UI currently used to claim your event rewards. The ability to select from a broad range of quest levels like you do in Crystal Cove is also an important component of an all new content system we are working on for later this year

[Aelonwy]

I really enjoyed the Smuggler's Rest/Crystal Cove event, hope it comes back around at least by this time next year. The kobolds were awesome!

As to what I'm interested in hearing news about.... I want some word on whether or not Armor Kits are ALL we are getting in the topic of armor appearance customization. I hope, I hope, I hope we eventually get real customization, ie changing underskin, overgear, and colors. *crossing fingers*

Thank you! And here's to 5 more years of DDO!

[sirgog]

A question: Fernando mentions some challenging content to come.

Does this mean content that, when played on its hardest difficulty setting, is actually tougher than the game's hardest current content? (The hardest content is almost all pre-Epic - presently it's elite ToD parts 1 and 3, elite Bastion, elite Stealer of Souls, elite Enter the Kobold, and maybe epic Chains of Flame or epic Chronoscope)


Copied from a thread I posted with suggestions on the upcoming epic reboot (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=272917), here's some examples of how I'd design truly difficult combat encounters. The key thing making these tough is that the bosses have abilities players must prepare for and react quickly to, and even the weaker mobs have nasty abilities (like the triple debuff to Fortification, movement speed and healing amplification the Lemures can dish out, better not go toe-to-toe with a Hezrou when suffering from that).



A truly difficult Epic quest endboss. Faced after the party has just rested fully (so they are buffed and at full mana at the beginning of the combat).

Nythkatos, Glabrezu (an image of a Glabrezu can be found here: http://www.vesivus.com/eBay/dndminis/GoL_Glabrezu.jpg, they are Huge size so ~20ft=6.1 metres tall)
Purple-named
Defenses: SR 40, saves all very high, Epic Ward, Raidboss immunities, 67 AC (see below), DR 10/cold iron AND good AND epic, 176k HP, very fast movement (200% of player base speed), teleport on a 20 sec cooldown, 20% fortification, 20% concealment (as Blur), 20 resistance to all elements, immunity to Lightning. Also, at 30% health, these change, see 'Berserk' below.
Melee attacks: 4 attacks per attack chain, attack chain duration 2.4 seconds. Like Lailat, multiple attacks come close to each other in the chain. +84 To-Hit, 8d12+25 (77 average damage). Blind-fight (this allows the Glabrezu to make two attempts to bypass enemy concealment, if it succeeds at either roll, it hits).

Unique spells (all max-empped and extended. All spells are treated as level 11 spells; all save DCs are 45):
All of these except the first require one or more of the players to stop auto-attacking the Glabrezu and do something specific, keeping the encounter changing. These spells (like the Abbot's Inferno, Conjure Phase Wraith, Encasement and Disjunction) all share a 20 second cooldown, and the Glabrezu casts one at random each time the cooldown expires.
Hellball: Conjures a deadly ball of elemental chaos. Deals 10d8 (loaded, so 50-80) base fire damage, plus an equal amount of electric, acid and cold damage, to each foe within a 40ft radius of the target. Reflex half for each component of the spell. (Max-Empped, this spell deals ~530 damage to someone that has all four 30-point elemental resists and fails all four saves). This spell is always cast on the Glabrezu's primary aggro target. Like other Fireball-type spells, this spell will detonate early if it hits a target before its chosen one.
Necrotic Field: Will negates. This spell is targeted upon a foe and lasts 8 seconds (16 extended). Upon a failed Will save, the target becomes a powerful conduit for negative energy. The target and all of its allies within 20ft suffer 100 negative energy damage per 2 seconds (Deathward negates, this heals Pale Masters instead of harming them) and all incoming arcane and divine healing is reduced by 75%. This spell is never cast on the Glabrezu's primary aggro target unless no other player is alive, it is instead cast on a random other player. (The affected player is intended to run away from the party).
Conjure Elemental Servant: This spell conjures a powerful elemental servant (earth, fire, water or air) with Epic Ward and 7000hp. This elemental fights as standard for its type. In addition, it grants all of its allies a 200% buff to damage dealt by spells of its element (acid damage for the earth elemental, cold for water). This needs to be killed immediately by the players - if it is still alive and Hellball is cast, Hellball will probably wipe the party.
Soullock: Upon casting this spell, the Glabrezu creates a crystal on the ground. Five seconds later, the crystal shatters. All foes with line of sight to the crystal when it shatters are struck by a Trap the Soul spell (Will DC 45 negates). Players must hide behind any of the (quite large) pillars in the room when this is cast. As the Glabrezu continues his melee attacks during this time, it is recommended that players coordinate to all run to the same pillar.

Berserk: When reduced to 30% HP, the Glabrezu starts conserving energy and loses the ability to use its unique spells (this lets players mob up any elementals that may be active). At 20%, it goes berserk, and starts casting Hellball on a random party member every six seconds, and his attack chain speeds up to take 1.6 seconds, however his AC drops by 20 and he loses his Fortification. Once he goes berserk - you better kill him fast.

For comparisons: 176k HP is a fraction more than Normal Suulomades (but less than Normal Horoth). 67 AC is very high, IIRC it's the same as Epic Malicia and higher than Epic Lailat. His melee damage output (measured per second) is similar to that done by elite Horoth (if you include the badges), however Displacement will reduce this by 25%. This fight is intended to take a typical party 4-5 minutes.


... and a demon-themed, tougher than usual trash mob pack...

Here's an example of how I'd make an epic trash pull for a future epic dungeon that's tougher than those we presently have. It's Demon themed and would fit in Amrath. It's expected that players could face five similar difficulty encounters between shrines (although of course, some encounters will be easier and others harder).

1 Hezrou Titan (orange named):
Defenses: High SR, 61 AC, medium-high saves (30-36 in each), no Minion debuff, Epic Ward, can teleport once per 4 sec. 33500hp. 40% fortification (see below).
Offense: Unarmed melee (19-20/x4) - 1 attack per 1.2 sec, +77 to-hit, 8d12+30 damage (avg 82), Blind-Fight (whenever this mob fails to bypass a concealment bonus, it may reroll once, reducing miss chances to 1% - Dusk, 4% - Blur, 25% - Displacement). Cleaves in a 225 degree frontal arc. Prefers melee but occasionally throws Max-Empped Chaos Hammer, Max-Empped Mass Inflict Serious and Harm, all with Superior Potency 6. Unlike other Hezrous, this does not throw rocks.
Special: When the Hezrou falls under 50% health, four more Lemures appear (see below). When the Hezrou falls under 40% health, it flies into an epic barbarian rage. In this state it gains +10 Strength and Con, +25% melee alacrity, suffers a -5 AC penalty and loses all Fortification. In this phase it cannot cast spells.

2 Infernal Blackguard:
Defenses: High SR, 66 AC, high saves (all 36+), Minion debuff, no Epic Ward, 3500hp. DR 6/-. Can cast Freedom of Movement and Mass Protection from Elements (absorbing 500 damage, not 120, to make up for players doing more damage than monsters do). Can use Whirlwind Attack (as the feat) on a 6 second cooldown.
Offense: Khopesh and board melee (17-20/x3) - 1 attack per 0.7 sec, +45 to-hit, 4d6+20 damage plus Flaming and Evil Burst (41 average, 55 on a crit that is negated by fortification). The Khopeshs used by these foes are Supreme Tyrant Greensteel Khopeshes of Ash exactly like players can craft (Flaming, Evil Burst, Insight +4, 5% chance of Enervation proc on melee hit)

5 Lemure Grunts:
Defenses: No SR, 54 AC, low-medium saves (all 25-30), Evasion, Minion, no Epic Ward, DR 20/good OR cold iron, very fast movement. 580hp each.
Offense: Unarmed melee (19-20/x2) - 3 attacks per 1.3 sec (claw/claw/bite), +66 to-hit, 4d12+20 claw, 6d12+30 bite, vorpal attack from the bite inflicts a debuff reducing movement speed by 35%, Fortification by 50% and incoming divine/arcane healing by 50% for 12 seconds. This debuff cannot be removed early except by character death or Unyielding Sovereignty.
Special: Four more of these spawn upon the Hezrou hitting 50% hp, as the Hezrou has had its Glabrezu master cast a Wish spell to emulate a Contingency spell to trigger a Summon Monster spell.

1 Infernal Fire Elemental:
Defenses: No SR, Evasion, extreme (40+) Reflex save, other saves poor (25 or lower), low AC, permanent Fire Shield: Warm, Epic Ward, DR 15/-, fast healing: 50hp/sec. 2400hp. 29HD (so susceptible to Trap the Soul, both the spell and the procs)
Offense: Empowered DBF, Meteor Swarm, Explosive Curse, poor melee attacks.

That encounter would provide a target for pretty much everything a level 20 has in their arsenal. A Wisdom-based divine could healbot until the Hezrou hits 50%, then set off an Implosion to try to swat the Lemures. An Assassin can try to take out one of the Blackguards with a single blow. A thief-acrobat can whack the fire elemental with their Epic Souleater, while a Barbarian or Defender of Siberys attacks the Hezrou, keeping it turned away from the rest of the party, and while remaining confident that their 100% fortification is safe from the Lemure's debuffs. And an Archmage might Hypnotism the Blackguards then focus on pew-pewing away (with their Evocation 1-6 SP spells) the foes from weakest to strongest.

The Hezrou will put up a bit of a fight and may take time (~20 seconds in a geared group, ~45 seconds otherwise) to kill once the party focuses on it, but the fight is always changing and the healing requirements are somewhat intense, so you avoid some of the dull Crateos-style combats. Achievable and sustainable player ACs provide some defense against it, but are not the 'god mode' that an AC of 80 is in Normal VoD. Plus, the AC requirements change when old Hezzy goes berserk at 40%.

For comparison HP wise: The Hezrou's 33.5k HP is about 50% more than Shroud lieutenants have on elite difficulty. 580hp on the Lemures is close to mob HP in Amrath Normal with single-player dungeon scaling in effect. 3500hp on the Blackguards is similar to IQ elite Quori trash (although the toughest ones have >5k). The Hezrou hits almost as hard as the melee attacks of Normal Horoth, but attacks slower.



In addition, here's an idea for a raid against a green dragon that features an optional 'hard mode' beyond the usual level scaling of normal/hard/elite: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=274081

[Mazeratti]

This has been the funnest event so far ty ppls involved for bringing this to us.

I luv the Kobalds the most and 2nd the cheesy Pirate Party music.... can I get that on ITunes?

LOL


..... seriously ?

[Chaosprism]

As for topics for tolero to discuss:

1) Since calling the game "DDo unlimited: eberron" and not just stormreach will we be seeing us moving away from stormreach?
Maybe starting new characters on the main continent? (with no mail or contact with your old characters)

2) How are the druids going? And the other shapeshifting races like changelings, and shifters? Is the code working for that yet? Have you solved the need to add block/tumble/Jump to other shapes yet

3) Will we be seeing player based psionic races/classes, kalashtar: Psions etc in the future?

4) Do the missing standard race of eberron get a feature (the gnomes)?

[Argila]

How about adding a 'Loot All as Junk' button to the chest window loot?

[kothar11]

I would like to see shavrath expanded there are three sides there demon, devil, and archon. We can only get to devil.
Also happy 5th Birthday.

[GoldyGopher]

You asked us “So please visit our community discussion thread by clicking here to post questions or topics that you want to see me address in that message and I’ll do my best to include as many as I can” in your Happy 5th Birthday Message. As you prepare for the upcoming State of the Game message I would like to again provide feedback about the state of the game from my perspective as a player. I have been around for a while, playing in closed Beta and coming back to the game about six months after launch.

Over the years I have seen a lot of changes in the game, I doubt many of the current active player base remember when you had to complete Goodblade’s trilogy of quests before you could attempt “Survive the Low Road” to get out of the Lower Harbor. I would argue that many or most of the changes that we have seen are for the better of the game or player experience, but still there are some head scratchers.

There is an old saying that you must look back before you can look forward. A year ago I compiled a long diatribe; I mean a well crafted verbose response. Much of my concerns a year ago fell into three broad categories, Balance, the Lack of Official discussions, and um lag.

Over the past year Turbine has done both a better job of communication with the player base to missing the boat in it entirety. The discussion by Eladrin on the changes to Two Weapon Fighting is a good example of official discussion with the player base. The lack of information about U8P1 and U9 are the opposite end of the extreme. Players all realize that it takes a lot of time to have official discussions and we aren’t asking for discussions like Eladrin’s on everything, but we really need to have some idea on where Turbine intends to take the game in specific examples, Tanking, Ranged Combat, Pets, Spell System, and many many others. I think the responses in Eladrin’s TWF topic really engaged the player base and keep players more interested in the game and I hope that a similar approach is taken in these other topics.

One of those official discussion topics I would love to see is how Turbine intends or intended specific class and or Prestige Enhancements to fit into the end game. The current system is broken, and I have listened to more than one smart person suggest it is broken beyond repair.

Balance is an overly broad category that anything from how loot is awarded or xp is awarded to differences in character classes, and so on and so forth.

Are there any plans to rationalize XP/loot in quests?
As for Loot and XP I am a firm believer the game needs to be rationalized in terms of rewards for XP and Loot Rewards for the older quests. Simply put the game has changed these quests should be changed to.


Is there any thought at revamping, updating or reinventing a number of older quests and or the Adventure Packs?
I am going to use Waterworks and the four quests that makeup the Waterworks Quest Chain as an example. When the game first came out there design made perfect sense, you really need the ability to break out of the chain on a regular basis to repair, sell, resupply, to say the least. As the game has progressed this quest chain makes less and less sense. Could you leave it alone and would anyone really care? Of Course, but this quest chain has soo much potential. It could be changed into an Adventure Area covering all four quests, plus the back entrance and the waterworks existing adventure area, creating a great adventure area. It would also rationalize the XP and Rewards.

Has Turbine planned any changes in areas like “The Restless Isles” as the system engine has improved to correct some obvious issues (6 player adventure area 12 player raid).
This si a zone I would love to see expanded and a couple other quests dropped into because it such an interesting setting, but to be honest would love to see working elevators and or ladders allowing you to move from below to above, a use for Dynamic Layers?

Turbine has introduced Dynamic Layers in Lord of the Rings Online, any chance we could see that technology used in DDO?
Would be great to get rid of some of the load screens.

Have you looked at the locations of quests, there associated patrons, and favor?
I mean the original Solo Quests (Defend Havadasher and the like) really need to be low level quests and moved to Korthos Village. A couple of the lower level quests in the Marketplace should be moved to the Harbor, and so on and so forth.

Has Turbine put any thought into reworking the entire patron and favor reward system?
I doubt you will find too many players who think it doesn’t need to be reworked. The rewards are unbalanced and or missing in some cases.

Has Turbine put any thought into reworking the functionality of skills?
Currently a large number of the skills border on complete and utter uselessness. As a player who primarily plays a cleric “Heal” is my favorite. At level 10 with little or no way to get you HP beyond 150 HP on a melee, the concept of “Heal” was okay, but at level 20 with characters over 700 HP “Heal” is useless. Could “heal” be transformed into something that effects incoming and outgoing heals spells, potions, and wands? I mean like for each point of heal you get 10% more effectiveness of the incoming and outgoing spells and spell like abilities. So a Heal of 20 nets 200% more effective. (This would require some enhancement changes by the way). I could add spot and listen.
I would also like to see a change to “Intimidate” where each point increase your hate generated by 10% and diplomacy reduce your hate by 10% but hey that is just me.

Has Turbine looked into more Alternative Character Classes, similar to Favored Soul
I have heard rumors of Swashbuckers (or Mariners) and Warmages in the past. But it would be interesting to here where Turbine is looking beyond Druids and Psionicists.

There has been much rumor and gossip about the upgraded engine and what it could be bringing to the table. Do these upgrades bring us closer to Pets, Body Guards, Heralds, and the like similar to other games?

Sorry I started to ramble again. Just trying to get a few ideas out there.

[Adoyall]

I hope DDO never ramps up PVP, it's currently a huge waste of time and I for one would love to see it stay that way.

[count_spicoli]

/not signed.

No awards for PvP, unless they allow all characters, casters included, to use all of their abilities; i.e. no disabled "can't cast that in a public instance", and make stealthed rogues truely invisible for PvP.

agree totally. all skills, abilities, spells, attacks whatever available. Bring what you got!

I don't like PvP in the DDO world. People will want the classes "balanced" to make PvP fair. They already changed spells to accommodate the PvP people which punished those who quested (which, along with role playing, is the heart of D&D). There are so many games that do PvP, but don't have good questing and role playing based on D&D. Pleae don't ruin this game with more PvP.

If they do PvP, they should make another world and muck with the casting there and leave us questers and role players alone. Maybe call it champions online or something.

Oh yeah, They also tried a leaderboard and it failed.

Back on Topic:
Happy Birthday... been playing for 5 years, got the hat (not the shirt). How about sprucing up the fountain with all the founder names and guilds (to thank those who supported from the start).



I like questing and grouping up but i think pvp would add another dimension to it. Just give you another build type of character. A build stictly for PvP! I think it would be cool to see names on a leader board then see them out questing and go Hey theres that bad mo fo! I think with the awesome character development in this game it could be very interesting.

I hope DDO never ramps up PVP, it's currently a huge waste of time and I for one would love to see it stay that way.

Just because you feel this way doesnt mean everyone does. Pvp could be made better and never affect you in anyway if you never participate. Some people play this game strictly soloing and its fun to them others strictly do PUGs. Whatever floats your boat.